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THE INTRODUCTION TO THE WORKBOOK The Workbook’s introduction is something everyone doing the Workbook should definitely read thoughtfully. In my opinion we could profit from reading it over once a month or so as we do the Workbook to remind ourselves of its basic instructions. The first paragraph explains the interrelationship of the Text and the Workbook. Both are essential for anyone doing the Course. According to the first sentence, without the “theoretical foundation” of the Text, the exercises of the Workbook are “meaningless.” We should all pay careful attention to the Text; it is “necessary” to do so if we want the benefits of the Workbook exercises. Does that mean that one should study the Text before doing the Workbook? Not necessarily. The Manual discusses the order in which the volumes should be used, and says it differs from person to person. Some, it says, “might do better to begin with the workbook” (M-29.1:6). It is evident from this introduction, however, that if one begins with the Workbook, the Text should follow, or perhaps be read along with the Workbook. On the other hand, studying the Text without doing the Workbook is equally useless because “it is doing the exercises that will make the goal of the course possible” (1:2; all references in this discussion will be from the Workbook’s introduction, unless otherwise indicated). To simply study the theoretical foundation without practical application results in little more than empty head knowledge. You may understand intellectually what the goal is, but you will not be able to attain it without the exercises. In Chapter 30 of the Text, the Course puts forth this same idea. It says there: The goal is clear, but now you need specific methods for attaining it. The speed by which it can be reached depends on this one thing alone; your willingness to practice every step. Each one will help a little, every time it is attempted. And together will these steps lead you from dreams of judgment to forgiving dreams and out of pain and fear. (T-30.In.1:2–5) The “one thing alone” that determines how fast we reach the goal is our “willingness to practice every step.” In terms of doing the Workbook I think this can be aptly applied to how willing we are to practice the daily exercises as instructed. If the lesson calls for four or five repetitions during the day, how willing are we to actually do

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that? Each time we remember to practice it may not seem as if much is happening, but every time helps a little. It is all the little, repeated times of practice that, when added together, will lead us out of our dream of judgment. The Workbook does not promise to change us overnight; rather, it says that if we are willing to practice every step of the exercises, each such attempt will, little by little, purify our minds of the ego’s darkness. The purpose of the Workbook is “to train your mind to think along the lines the text sets forth” (1:4). The word train calls to mind things like piano practice, sports exercises and drills, and even military training. It definitely carries with it the idea of manifold repetitions, of disciplined effort, of pushing beyond the envelope of our present abilities. When you train in a gym or health club the whole idea involves pushing past the limits you now have and learning to do things you cannot now do. Yet at the same time it also carries with it the idea that what is being developed is something latent, the calling out of an undeveloped potential, and not the addition of something heretofore entirely lacking. What is being trained is our minds. The separation is nothing more than a mistaken mindset, and all mistakes must be corrected at the level on which they occur. Only the mind is capable of error. (T-2.IV.2:3–4) Correction belongs at the thought level. (T-2.V.1:7) The purpose of the workbook is to train your mind in a systematic way to a different perception of everyone and everything in the world. (4:1) So this is a very thorough mind training, intended to affect the way you perceive literally everything. That we are learning a “different” perception clearly implies that our existing perception is mistaken. Notice some of the very simple “rules” for doing the Workbook: 1. “Do not undertake to do more than one set of exercises a day” (2:6). 2. The exercises are to be practiced with “great specificity” (6:1) (one of those words I never used until I began studying the Course!). This means that we are to pay great attention to details, and to applying the general ideas of the lessons specifically to many different things in our lives. The purpose

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is to help us generalize the ideas and to see that they apply to “everyone and everything in the world” (4:1). 3. Do not deliberately exclude anything from the application of the ideas (6:3). Having 365 lessons, one for each day of the year, implies that we should do the lessons in order. (There is nothing wrong with doing some out of order at random times, but in following the training program, they should be done in order.) As you move through the lessons, it becomes obvious that the later lessons build quite squarely on earlier ones; doing them in order is the most effective way, therefore, to learn. Some people wonder about doing one lesson per day. They wonder if, perhaps, they should repeat a lesson if they feel they did not “get” it, or did not do the practice correctly. The wisdom of many students who have worked with the book can be summed up like this: Don’t “guilt yourself” about the lessons. In general, there is no need to repeat. Later lessons will repeat the same concepts in many cases. If you want to repeat a lesson because you found it beneficial, by all means do so. If you are repeating because you are trying to do it perfectly, you may be subconsciously resisting moving on to the next lesson, which will free you. It is usually better to forgive yourself and move on. We are asked to remember that “the overall aim of the exercises is to increase your ability to extend the ideas you will be practicing to include everything” (7:1). I’d like to linger a little on those words “exercises” and “practicing.” We are not just reading these ideas. “Doing the Workbook” is not just reading the lessons. It is practicing the lessons. Each lesson gives “specific procedures by which the idea for today is to be applied” (3:3). Your following those procedures is what is meant by practicing, and practicing is “doing the Workbook.” How much chemistry would you learn if all you did was read the lab manual but never performed the experiments? If we do the exercises, the results are guaranteed: This [extension of the ideas] will require no effort on your part. The exercises themselves meet the conditions necessary for this kind of transfer. (7:2–3) Our part is to do the exercises; the extension of the benefits derived from exercise will happen automatically, without additional effort on our part. You may practice with certain specific things or

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individuals or thoughts; the benefits of that practice will extend, without your effort, to everything in your world. Like working out in a health club, you don’t have to even like the program. If you work out, your body will benefit whether or not you like working out. So here, in doing these mental exercises, it isn’t necessary that we believe the ideas at first, or like them, or accept them, or welcome them. You can even actively resist them. It doesn’t matter what we think about them. “You are asked only to use them” (8:5). “Nothing more than that is required” (9:5). That is, apply them to your life as instructed. Notice that applying the ideas is required for the program to work. If you do so, they will be effective. Using the ideas is what will give them meaning to us and will show us that they are true. No one can read this carefully without realizing what is being asked of us. Reading the Text isn’t enough to reach the goal of the Course. Reading the Workbook as well is also not enough. We have to carry out the instructions in each lesson, the specific procedures for applying the idea during the day. It is our willingness to practice every step, to follow every instruction, and to do the exercises, that will determine the speed with which we reach the goal.

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LESSON 1 • JANUARY 1 “Nothing I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place] means anything.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To teach that everything you see is equally meaningless, that no real differences exist between any of the things you see. Exercise: Two times—morning and evening, preferably, for one minute (but do not hurry). Look leisurely about you, applying the idea specifically and indiscriminately to whatever you see, first in your immediate area and then farther. Say, for example, “This table does not mean anything.” Remarks: It is essential to specifically exclude nothing. Do not, however, try to include everything. Do not hurry; leisure is essential.

Commentary The early lessons do not seem particularly inspiring to most people, but they are carefully planned to begin undermining the ego thought system. “Nothing I see…means anything.” We are so certain, in our ego arrogance, that we really understand a lot of things. The lesson is trying to plant the idea that we don’t really understand anything we see, that our vaunted understanding is an illusion. As long as we think we understand what something is and what it means, we will not begin to ask the Holy Spirit for its true meaning. Our belief that we understand closes our mind to any higher understanding. We need to become like little children, who realize they do not know, and ask someone who does know. Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind1 is the title of a wonderful little book that introduces Zen thought. The idea is that we grow most rapidly and reliably when we admit we are beginners who do not know, and need instruction in everything. A “beginner’s mind” is an open mind, ready to find unrecognized meaning in everything.

. Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind (Trumbull, Conn.: Weatherhill Inc., 1972). 1

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LESSON 2 • JANUARY 2 “I have given everything I see [on this street, from this window, in this place] all the meaning that it has for me.”

Practice instructions Exercise: Two times—ideally morning and evening, for one minute. Same basic instructions as yesterday, just using a new idea. In selecting subjects for today, look side to side and behind you. Remarks: Like the previous lesson, this one focuses on being totally indiscriminate in your selection of subjects. The comments in paragraph 2 about avoiding “selection by size, brightness, color, material, or relative importance to you” (2:1) are a brief reference to the Course’s theory of selective attention. According to the Course, we are highly selective in what we attend to visually. We pay attention to things that visually stand out and therefore catch our eye (see M-8.1) and we pay attention to things we value (see M-8.3:7). Notice that both of these factors—things that visually stand out and things we value—are included in the sentence I just quoted. This implies that we are supposed to practice the lesson without our usual habit of selective attention, because that habit assumes that the different things in our visual field are truly different, and this lesson is meant to teach us that they are not.

Commentary The meaning of yesterday’s lesson is now a little clearer; “Nothing I see means anything” can be understood to say, “The only meaning anything has for me is the meaning that I give to it; there is no intrinsic meaning in anything.” When I first practiced Lesson 1, I recall that the first object my eyes lit on was an excellent new photograph of my two children. At first, my mind rebelled at saying, “That photograph does not mean anything,” because it sure meant something to me. But the next morning, on Lesson 2, I began to see what the lessons were getting at. The photo, in itself, has no meaning at all. To the vast majority of people in the world it really would mean nothing; but to me, it meant something because I had given meaning to it. When we begin to realize that our perception is formed by our minds, and not vice versa, it can be a startling revelation. If this lesson seems trivial or obvious to you, try applying it the next time

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“everything I see” includes someone who, in your perception, is betraying you, lying to you, or abandoning you: “I have given this situation all the meaning that it has for me.” Not so trivial!

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LESSON 3 • JANUARY 3 “I do not understand anything I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place].”

Practice instructions Purpose: To clear away the thick film of past associations which you project onto everything, so that you see things afresh and realize that you do not really understand them at all. Exercise: Two times—ideally, morning and evening, for one minute. Same basic instructions as the previous two days, only with a new idea. Remarks: Being indiscriminate in selecting subjects is a direct reflection of the lesson’s purpose, which is to clear your mind of the interpretive film which you lay over things and which claims to tell you what those things really are. It is that same film which would also tell you there are some things to which the lesson does not apply. The very act, therefore, of applying the lesson to absolutely anything is also an act of setting aside that interpretive film.

Commentary If nothing I see means anything, and I have given everything I see all the meaning that it has for me, then obviously I do not understand anything I see. The Workbook is laying the groundwork for our learning. To learn a new understanding of anything we must let go our belief that we already understand it. I find this lesson useful in many situations. When something happens that I interpret as unpleasant or upsetting, I can realize that my judgment of “unpleasant” or my upset comes not from the thing or person or situation, but from my imagined understanding of it. By repeating, “I do not understand anything I see,” I open my mind to a new understanding from the Holy Spirit. I use variants of the idea at times, such as “I don’t know what this means” or “I have no idea what this is all about.” In the Course, the beginning of understanding is understanding that I don’t understand anything. Remember this is an exercise. Don’t expect to perform it perfectly! You are practicing the realization that you don’t understand, which means you are coming from a state of mind that believes it does understand. That’s okay.

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LESSON 4 • JANUARY 4 “These thoughts do not mean anything. They are like the things I see in this room [on this street, from this window, in this place].”

Practice instructions Purpose: To train you to lump all your normal thoughts, both “good” and “bad,” as well as all the things you see outside you, into one category: they are meaningless, and they are outside you (outside your real nature). This will open your mind to the fact that there is a whole other realm than that which you are aware of, which is fundamentally different, which is truly meaningful, and which lies deep within. Exercise: Three or four times (no more), for one minute or so. • For roughly one minute, watch your thoughts. Include both “good” and “bad” ones. • Then apply the idea specifically to each thought you noticed, saying, “This thought about [name of central figure or event] does not mean anything. It is like the things I see in this room [on this street, and so on].” You may also include unhappy thoughts you were aware of before the practice period. Response to temptation: Optional. In addition to (not instead of) the formal exercises, feel free throughout the day to use the idea as a way of dispelling specific unhappy thoughts. This is the first instance of a practice that will become a major focus of the Workbook.

Commentary The introduction to the Workbook states, “The purpose of the workbook is to train your mind in a systematic way to a different perception of everyone and everything in the world” (W-pI.In.4:1). This lesson begins to teach us to work directly with our thoughts, and the first lesson is: They don’t mean anything. There is an assumption in this lesson that we are very inexperienced (5:4) and therefore completely, or nearly completely, out of touch with what the lesson calls our “real thoughts” (2:3). The thoughts it is referring to as meaningless are the thoughts of the ego. It is the contention of the Course that our minds are nearly completely ego-directed (see T-4.VI.1:4). The tone of this lesson is based on that assumption; therefore, whatever thought you focus on, you can regard it as meaningless.

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Our real thoughts are the thoughts of the Christ within us; they are not meaningless. What we call thinking, however, is not really thinking at all (this is made clear in Lesson 8). We have identified with our egos. The ego is like a tiny corner of our minds that we have cordoned off from the rest; we have convinced ourselves that it is the whole thing. The thoughts that swirl around in this little pocket of mind are totally unrepresentative of our true Self, and therefore, whether “good” or “bad,” they are meaningless. When we have trained ourselves to look at these thoughts objectively we will realize how true this is (1:6–7). The ego thoughts cover up our real thoughts. The “good” ones are at best shadows of the real, and shadows make it difficult to see. The “bad” ones are outright blocks to sight. “You do not want either” (2:6). Realizing that we don’t want the “bad” ones is fairly easy; realizing we don’t want the “good” ones is much more disconcerting and difficult. The lesson calls itself “a major exercise” (3:1) and promises to repeat the exercise later. It says that the exercise is fundamental to three long-range goals, and serves to begin implementing these goals: • to separate the meaningless from the meaningful • to see the meaningless as outside you, and the meaningful within • to train our minds to recognize what is the same and what is different First, it helps us learn to separate meaningless thoughts from meaningful ones, our ego thoughts from our real thoughts. Note that there is a kind of judgment going on here, and even separation, although these are two terms usually given negative connotations. This kind of looking at our thoughts is one form of what the Text calls “the right use of judgment” (T-4.IV.8:6). Second, we are learning to see the meaningless as outside us. We may ask how, if it is our thoughts that are meaningless, we can see them as outside us; aren’t thoughts within us? Here, I believe, the Workbook means our true Self when it speaks of “you.” Our meaningless ego thoughts are not representative of our true Self; they are not really part of it, but outside it. Third, we are learning to recognize what is the same and what is different. We think “good” thoughts are different from “bad” thoughts, but this lesson is training us to see that they are really the same, both different forms of madness.

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In suggesting that we might use the idea for today “for a particular thought that you recognize as harmful” (5:1), the Workbook is introducing a new form of practice, one that will become part of its regular repertoire. Besides scheduled morning and evening practice, we can use the idea as a response to random “temptation” in the form of a harmful thought. Response to temptation will be brought in as a practice exercise many more times as we go on. In asking us to do the exercise three or four times, the lesson also introduces midday practice sessions in addition to the morning and evening ones.

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LESSON 5 • JANUARY 5 “I am never upset for the reason I think.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To teach you that the cause of your upset is not the external situation, person, or event you think it is. Also, to teach you that your negative emotions are not truly different from one another. Exercise: Three or four times, for one minute or so. • Optional beginning: Say, “There are no small upsets. They are all equally disturbing to my peace of mind.” This is designed to correct your tendency to dismiss some upsets as too insignificant to bother with. • For a minute or so, search your mind for any persons, situations, or events that are distressing you, however mildly. • Then apply the idea indiscriminately to each one by saying, “I am not (angry, worried, depressed, etc.) about (source of upset) for the reason I think.” • If you want to hang on to certain upsets because they seem justified, say, “I cannot keep this form of upset and let the others go. For the purposes of these exercises, then, I will regard them all as the same.” Response to temptation: Optional. In addition to the formal practice periods, feel free during the day to apply the idea to any upset you are experiencing, as a way of restoring your peace of mind. Say, “I am not (angry, worried, depressed, etc.) about (source of upset) for the reason I think.”

Commentary This lesson is, to me, one of the most useful tools for jarring my thinking loose from a deeply worn track. “This lesson, like the preceding one, can be used with any person, situation or event you think is causing you pain” (1:1). Try to remember it today when, for whatever reason, you get upset. That slowpoke driver on the road in front of you. The person who puts you down. When the job you’ve been hoping for falls through. When someone tracks dirt on your freshly mopped floor, or breaks your favorite keepsake. “I am never upset for the reason I think.” Notice that the lesson does not identify what it is that you really are upset about. That comes later. For now the Course is simply

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trying to undermine your belief that you know what is upsetting you. Notice, too, that it does not ask you not to be upset! “Fear, worry, depression, anxiety, anger, hatred, jealousy…” (1:3): The lesson does not ask you to be without these feelings, simply to recognize that they are not occurring for the reasons you think. Yes, of course, the eventual goal is to let them all go. But to do that we have to break our belief that they are different things with different causes. All of them stem, ultimately, from the same cause; all of them are meanings we project onto the world we see. These first five lessons have been tough, if you think about them. Lesson 1 was about letting go of what I see. Lesson 2, letting go of my judgments about meaning. Lesson 3, letting go of my understanding. Lesson 4, letting go of my thoughts. And this lesson is leading me to let go of my entire thought system, the root cause behind all of my upsets.

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LESSON 614—JANUARY 6 “I am upset because I see something that is not there.”

Practice instructions Exercise: Three or four times, for one minute or so. Same instructions as yesterday, only using a new idea. Tip: The lessons speak as if you should first search your mind for a minute, and then apply the lesson to everything uncovered in your search. However, you may have difficulty remembering all the things you uncovered. If so, rather than practicing in these distinct two phases, you may want to practice in a slightly different way: Search your mind, find a single upset, apply the idea to it, then search your mind for another upset, apply the idea to that one, and so on. Response to temptation: Optional. The idea can be used throughout the day to dispel your upsets. But do not substitute this for the practice periods.

Commentary This begins to explain why I am really upset. I am never upset for the reason I think; I am upset because I see something that is not there. (Once again the Workbook builds its case piece by piece; it does not tell us just what we are seeing, only that it is something that isn’t there. If you’re curious, go ahead, peek at the next lesson.) We can’t begin to imagine how much of what we see, things we think of as “real” and “objective facts,” are really things that are not there. The case being built here is that all of our upset comes from things that aren’t there. Only what God creates is real, and nothing He creates is upsetting, and if those are facts, today’s idea must be true. So when I feel upset I can say to myself, “I’m upset because I’m seeing something that isn’t there.” We are asked to recall the “two cautions stated in the previous lesson” (3:1). Since they are repeated they are obviously important, so let’s think a little about each. There are no small upsets. They are all equally disturbing to my peace of mind. (3:2–3) I find I have to remind myself of this a lot. It is so easy to overlook “small” upsets and leave them undealt with. A rage at someone who betrays me and steals my job is no different than a “minor” annoyance

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at slow service in a restaurant. Both have the power to disturb my peace of mind. If my goal is a mind at peace I must learn to deal with all upsets as being of equal importance; I must learn to “recognize what is the same and what is different” (W-pI.4.3:4). I cannot keep this form of upset and let the others go. For the purposes of these exercises, then, I will regard them all as the same. (3:5–6) At least during the practice periods of the Workbook, we need to regard all upsets as the same, and apply the lesson to them. If I insist on not applying the lesson to some “minor” upset or to an upset that seems justified to me, I won’t really be able to let any of the upsets go. I will be holding on to the principle behind all of them. It would be like saying you are going to lose weight by cutting out sugar and fat, except for that half gallon of ice cream every night. The Course insists that we be thorough and absolute in our practicing. “I am upset because I see something that is not there.”

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LESSON 7 • JANUARY 7 “I see only the past.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To begin to change your ideas about time, which are the foundation for all that you see and believe. Your mind will resist this change, in order to maintain the stability of your world, yet it is that world which keeps you bound. Exercise: Three or four times, for one minute or so. Look about you and apply the idea specifically and indiscriminately to whatever catches your eye, saying: “I see only the past in [this shoe, that body, etc.].” “Do not linger over any one thing in particular, but remember to omit nothing specifically” (5:1).

Commentary As the lesson says, this “is the rationale for all of the preceding” lessons (1:2). “It is the reason why nothing that you see means anything” (1:3), and so on through the previous six thoughts. Because we see only the past, every one of those previous ideas is true. It makes this lesson an extremely important one, one we need to take in and consider very seriously. Notice how absolute the thought for today is: “I see only the past.” We may find this “particularly difficult to believe at first” (1:1). If anything, that is an understatement. If you find the concept difficult to accept, be reassured that the Teacher realizes your difficulty and accepts it in you. The Course lays an unusually heavy emphasis on this concept, not only here, but also in the Text. For instance, three sections of Chapter 13, from “The Function of Time” (T-13.IV) through “Finding the Present” (T-13.VI), deal with how we see time and the fact that “the ego invests heavily in the past, and in the end believes that the past is the only aspect of time that is meaningful” (T-13.IV.4:2). It speaks of the shadow figures from the past, built upon illusions, that completely block out our sight of present reality. It says: To be born again is to let the past go, and look without condemnation upon the present. (T-13.VI.3:5)

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“Everything you believe is rooted in time, and depends on your not learning these new ideas about it” (2:1, my emphasis). Whatever we have learned, we learned from the past; that cannot be disputed. Therefore, everything we think we know is based on the past. We look at the present through the filter of our past learning. The Course urges us not to let our past learning be the light that guides us in the present (see T-14.XI.6:9). Instead we need to turn, in the moment, and inquire of the Holy Spirit to show us His vision of the present. The illustration in the lesson about the cup makes the point that our identification of things depends on the past, and our reactions to things come from past experiences. “You would have no idea what this cup is, except for your past learning” (3:6). And, “This is equally true of whatever you look at” (4:2). What we are “seeing” is the past, pure and simple. At the moment there may seem to be no alternative to this; we may wonder what other way of seeing is possible. But there is another way; the Course will bring us to that eventually. For now, simply let this lesson sink in: “I see only the past.”

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LESSON 8 • JANUARY 8 “My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To teach you that your mind spends all of its time empty, because it is always contemplating what is not there (the past). While it thinks about the empty, it itself is empty. Recognizing this emptiness makes way for something new to come in: real thoughts, which will produce real vision. Exercise: Four or five times (three or four if you find the practice irritating), for one minute or so. • Close your eyes and search your mind for a minute or so without investment, noting the thoughts you find and naming them by the central figure or theme of each one. Say, “I seem to be thinking about (name of person), about (name of an object), about (name of an emotion)....” • Conclude with, “But my mind is preoccupied with past thoughts.” Remarks: If you find the exercise arousing feelings in you—for instance, irritation—you may want to apply the idea to those feelings just as you would to anything else. This is a helpful tip for many of the lessons.

Commentary “This idea is, of course, the reason why you see only the past” (1:1). This clearly assumes that what we see simply reflects the thoughts occupying our minds. If that is so, then because our minds are preoccupied with past thoughts, we perceive pictures from the past in the outside world. “No one really sees anything. He sees only his thoughts projected outward” (1:2). This idea is so central to the Course, yet here it is simply slipped into this discussion of the past and time. We don’t really see anything! Everything we see is “the outside picture of an inward condition,” as the Text puts it (see T21.In.1:1–5). I’ve always loved the first line of the second paragraph: “The one wholly true thought one can hold about the past is that it is not here.” Ponder that a moment. You may have some extremely clear memories of the past, especially the very recent past. Yet if several people who experienced the same thing firmly disagreed with you, you would

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probably begin to doubt your memory—because you cannot really be completely certain it is reliable. You know very well from experience that your memory can deceive you. We think, “I could have sworn I left that key on the table!” Or we say, “Didn’t I tell you about that? I thought I did.” We say that sort of thing all the time without realizing how shaky our memory really is. But there is one absolutely trustworthy thought you can have about the past: “The past is not here. This is the present.” Now, if the past isn’t here, how can it have present effects? “To think about it at all is therefore to think about illusions” (2:2). You are thinking about something that no longer exists, which by definition is an illusion. Okay, so if my mind is preoccupied with past thoughts, and all thoughts about the past are thoughts about illusions, and all that I see is a projection of my thoughts—where does that leave what I am “seeing”? Nowhere. We are seeing reflections of memories of an illusion. When we are picturing the past or anticipating the future, the Course says our mind is actually blank, because it is thinking about nothing (2:4). This lesson is trying to get us to recognize when our mind is not really thinking at all, but is full of what it calls “thoughtless ideas.” This is why “these thoughts do not mean anything” (Lesson 4). To open ourselves to “vision” we have to stop blocking the truth with these meaningless mental images of something that isn’t here. The first step towards vision is becoming aware of the things that are not vision, which are the thoughts that normally fill our minds. I find this kind of exercise helps develop a kind of mental detachment. You step back, as it were, from your thoughts and observe them. Don’t make the mistake I made at first: Trying to force these thoughts out of the mind and make it blank. We don’t need to do that because it is blank already! Just observe your thoughts and apply the lesson, saying, “My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts.” Be willing to let go of your investment in the thoughts, or in having them be real thoughts, or deep ones, or important ones. Unclasp your fingers from them, let them go, be willing to see that they are without real meaning if they are based on the past, and thus based on something that is not here. The lesson is a gentle wedge, prying loose our attachment to what we think of as our thoughts.

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LESSON 9 • JANUARY 9 “I see nothing as it is now.”

Practice instructions Exercise: Three or four times, for one minute. Look about you, applying the idea without discrimination or exclusion to whatever you see. Begin with things near you: “I do not see this [telephone, arm, etc.] as it is now.” Then extend the range outward: “I do not see that [door, face, etc.] as it is now.” Remarks: You may accept this idea, but you do not really understand it, nor are you expected to. Understanding is not the prerequisite for this practice; rather, understanding is the goal of this practice. These exercises are meant to undo your illusion that you understand things and, by clearing this blockage away, allow true understanding to finally dawn on your mind. So at this point simply practice the idea, even if you do not understand it, find it disturbing, or even actively resist it.

Commentary If I see only the past, and my mind is preoccupied with past thoughts, then obviously I see nothing as it is now. I love the fact that the lesson goes on to say, “But while you may be able to accept it intellectually, it is unlikely that it will mean anything to you as yet” (1:2). The Course clearly recognizes a vast difference between intellectually accepting an idea and truly understanding it, so that it has become a part of us. I think of the stages of grief when a loved one dies. Immediately after the death, we may intellectually accept that our beloved is gone, but we have not truly grasped and assimilated that fact. It takes time for the reality of it to sink in. Likewise, we can accept the idea that we see nothing as it is now, but it may be some time before the meaning of that fact truly begins to dawn on us. Fortunately, the lesson goes on to say that our understanding, at this stage, is not necessary. In fact, what is necessary is the recognition that we do not understand! You might say that one of the things we are to grasp from this lesson is that we don’t understand it! It makes a kind of sense if you think about it.

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These exercises are concerned with practice, not with understanding. You do not need to practice what you already understand. (1:5–6) Some people may feel that it doesn’t make sense to work with an idea you don’t fully understand or believe. I’ve heard people ask questions such as “How can I work with a lesson like ‘I am the holy Son of God Himself’ if I don’t really believe that?” And the answer is, if you believed it already, you wouldn’t need to work with the lesson! Helping you understand or believe is what the practice is for. The attitude of recognizing our real ignorance is vital to learning. Without it, our false “understanding” gets in the way of learning. So when a lesson such as this one, “I see nothing as it is now,” rubs you the wrong way or leaves you feeling that you don’t really know what it is talking about—just be honest that you feel that way. Don’t make the mistake of pretending you already understand when you don’t. The lessons are designed with our ignorance in mind. “It is difficult for the untrained mind to believe that what it seems to picture is not there” (2:1). Difficult? Nearly impossible is more like it. The idea is disturbing; most of us will actively resist it in some way or another. That’s okay. That does not keep you from applying the idea anyhow, and that is all that is asked of us. (Remember the introduction to the Workbook and its last two paragraphs? If not, read them over in this regard.) Just do the exercises anyhow, even if your mind is resisting the entire idea; it will still have the desired effect. Notice how the lesson talks about “each small step” (2:5) clearing away a little darkness until understanding finally comes. The tone of these lessons, and indeed the entire Course, should not lead us to believe that we will reach enlightenment quickly. It comes in small steps, little by little. The Course does say that full enlightenment could come to any of us in any instant, if we could but open to it; it is nearer to us than our own hands and feet. But it also says that it will take much longer to make us willing to open than it will take for that final transformation of mind to occur. It says: By far the majority are given a slowly-evolving training program, in which as many previous mistakes as possible are corrected. Relationships in particular must be properly perceived, and all dark cornerstones of unforgiveness removed. (M-9.1:7–8) Notice: a “slowly-evolving training program” is the norm. So don’t be so restless or feel like you’re working against some deadline; take

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things at the pace they come, and work with the exercises in this Workbook. Be content to slowly evolve. Don’t worry if understanding does not leap full-blown into your mind tomorrow! The exercises are again deceptively simple, things like “I do not see this computer screen as it is now.” How does saying this help me? I can’t say for sure. I do know that the more often I repeat an idea, the more reasonable it starts to seem. Maybe that’s all there is to it. I know it has helped me, at times, to remind myself in some situation that seems fearful or out of control that “I do not see this situation as it is now in reality.” I can reassure myself that what I am seeing, which seems to be causing my fear, is not the reality of things. I may not have any idea what the reality is, but it helps to know that what I am seeing ain’t it! The idea is less reassuring when I apply it to something that I do like: “I do not see this romantic relationship as it is now.” Hmmm, not sure I like that. But if it does nothing more than begin to shake my faith in what I see, the lesson is doing its job even if I don’t fully understand it or like it.

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LESSON 10 • JANUARY 10 “My thoughts do not mean anything.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To show you that all of your current thoughts are meaningless and are, in fact, not real thoughts at all. Recognizing that you have been preoccupied with nonexistent thoughts will pave the way for uncovering your real thoughts. Exercise: Five times, for one minute or so (no more; cut in half if you are uncomfortable). • Close your eyes and repeat the idea very slowly. Then add, “This idea will help to release me from all that I now believe.” • Then search your mind for all available thoughts. Avoid selection or classification, seeing your thoughts as an odd procession which has no meaning to you. As each one crosses your mind say, “My thought about _____ does not mean anything.” Remarks: It is important to stand back from your thoughts and observe them with detachment. Do not think of them as different from one another in any real way. You might want to imagine you are watching a strange parade of disorganized, meaningless objects. Another helpful metaphor (not mentioned in the Course) might be to imagine that you are watching leaves float by on a stream. Response to temptation: Optional—whenever you have a distressing thought. Feel free to apply the idea to any upsetting thoughts you have throughout the day, using the form: “My thought about _____ does not mean anything.”

Commentary Lesson 4 said, “These thoughts do not mean anything,” and it promised the exercise would be “repeated from time to time in somewhat different form” (W-pI.4.3:1). This lesson is the first repetition. It explains that the reason the idea is true is that all the thoughts of which you are aware…are not your real thoughts. (1:1–2) That is particularly difficult to accept at first. How can my thoughts not be my real thoughts? It explains that we don’t have any

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basis for comparison as yet, but that when we do, “you will have no doubt that what you once believed were your thoughts did not mean anything” (1:5). So once again the Workbook is asking us, to a certain degree, to take this idea by faith for the time being. A basis for comparison implies that before long we will experience our real thoughts, and when we do, we will know that what we believed to be our thoughts were not our real ones. It’s like we’ve been eating carob all our lives thinking it was chocolate. Once we taste real chocolate, we know that carob was not chocolate; but until we have a basis for comparison, we can only take our teacher’s word for it. The difference between Lesson 10 and Lesson 4 is in the first word: “My thoughts” instead of “These thoughts.” In addition, the lesson does not go on to link the thoughts with things around us, as Lesson 4 did: “They are like the things I see in this room.” So the emphasis in this lesson is on the thoughts themselves: “The emphasis is now on the lack of reality of what you think you think” (2:4). The third paragraph points out the different aspects about our thoughts that have been emphasized so far: • they are meaningless • they are outside rather than within • they concern the past rather than the present “Now we are emphasizing that the presence of these ‘thoughts’ means that you are not thinking” (3:2). This rephrases the earlier concept that our mind is simply blank. Before we can have vision, we have to learn to recognize nothingness when we think we see it. The exercises given make it clear that what the Course is talking about closely resembles many Eastern meditation teachings. What is being cultivated is a kind of detachment from our “thoughts,” becoming “the witness” or taking the position of an observer in regard to our thoughts. We watch the thoughts as if “you are watching an oddly assorted procession going by, which has little if any personal meaning to you” (4:6). One book I read about meditation (Stephen Levine’s A Gradual Awakening,1 a wonderful little book) used the analogy of watching a train going by, each car containing a thought or set of thoughts. “Oh, there goes a thought of hatred! There goes some worry. There is a carload of sadness.” It also used the picture of watching clouds . Stephen Levine, A Gradual Awakening (New York: Anchor Books, 1979, 1989). 1

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floating by in the sky, with the expanse of sky being the mind itself. Levine emphasizes that we do not let ourselves cling to any of the thoughts or allow them to drag us along with them, but likewise we do not push them away or resist them. If they are “meaningless,” as the lesson says, we need not respond to them at all. As you do this kind of mental exercise you become aware of your mind as something independent of the thoughts that appear to cross it. You dis-identify with the thoughts. They lose their emotional charge for you. The thoughts become less and less of a “big deal” to you. You begin to recognize the vast expanse of mind in which these thoughts come and go, and to realize that they have no effect on that “sky of mind” in which they float. Notice in the practice instructions that the pace is stepping up a bit. “Five practice periods are recommended” (5:2) in addition to using the idea during the day for any thought that distresses us. The closing added thought can be helpful to reinforce our belief that what we are doing is really worthwhile. We may need such reinforcement, since the actual practice of the exercise may induce discomfort at times. It isn’t comfortable to repeatedly tell oneself, “My thoughts do not mean anything.” It may seem demeaning. So reminding myself that “this idea will help to release me from all that I now believe” (4:3) can be a needed step in strengthening our motivation to do the exercises. The Workbook is cognizant of how entrenched the ego is in our minds, and works with us very gently in its attempts to dislodge us from our fixed position.

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LESSON 11 • JANUARY 11 “My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To reverse how you see cause and effect in your perception. You think that the outside world imprints itself on your mind, causing your perceptions, yet causation travels the other way: from the inside out. What you see outside you is the projection of your thoughts. This is the first lesson that deals with this major Workbook theme. Exercise: Three times (four or five if you find that comfortable and desirable), for one minute or so. • With eyes closed repeat the idea slowly and casually, to reflect the peace and relaxation contained in the idea. • Then open your eyes and look about, up and down, near and fear, letting your eyes move rapidly from one thing to another. During this time repeat the idea leisurely and effortlessly. • To conclude, close your eyes and repeat the idea slowly. Remarks: Unlike most of the previous exercises, in this one you do not apply the idea specifically to the objects around you, naming them as you do. In fact, the repeating of the idea is not synchronized with the shifting of your glance. The two happen at different paces. The relative rapidity with which you look around is contrasted with the slowness with which you repeat the idea.

Commentary The lesson introduces “the concept that your thoughts determine the world you see” (1:3), a major theme in the Course. It is the reason for the famous line, “Seek not to change the world, but choose to change your mind about the world” (T-21.In.1:7). The mind is primary and the world secondary. We believe that the world causes (or at least affects) what we think; the Course teaches that mind is the cause, and the world, effect. The idea, we are told, “contains the foundation for the peace, relaxation and freedom from worry we are trying to achieve” (3:4). In this idea is your release made sure. The key to forgiveness lies in it. (1:4–5) Why is that? If what I see outside is being caused by my own meaningless thoughts, then there is nothing to “blame” in the outside

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world; all that is needed is to correct my thoughts. I can forgive what I see because it is meaningless. I condemn and judge only when I think I see something that means something—something bad or evil or terrible. But if it is meaningless there is no ground for condemnation. And if my mind is the cause of what I see, then how can I judge it? All I can do is recognize that, as the Text says, “I am responsible for what I see” (T-21.II.2:3), and choose to change my own mind.

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LESSON 12 • JANUARY 12 “I am upset because I see a meaningless world.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To realize that you are upset because you instinctively sense that the world is content-free, a blank slate. This makes you afraid that the truth will be written on it. This exercise will help you accept that the world truly is a blank slate, erase what you have written on it, and then see what God has written on it. Exercise: Three or four times, for one minute or less (stop whenever you feel strain). • Look about slowly, shifting your glance at regular time intervals. As you look about, say, “I think I see a fearful world, a dangerous world, a hostile world,” and so on, using whatever descriptive terms occur to you. This includes positive ones, which imply the possibility of their opposite. They imply a world in which both positive and negative are present and battle for supremacy. This is not the world God would have you see. • At the end add, “But I am upset because I see a meaningless world.” Remarks: Shifting your glance at regular intervals reflects today’s idea. By giving the same amount of time and attention to each thing, you teach yourself that the things you see are all equally meaningless. This is the same thing today’s idea is trying to teach you.

Commentary What upsets us is an empty slate, a canvas without paint; we can’t resist, we have to paint our meaning on it, and when we do, what we see is frightening, sad, violent, or insane. We can’t simply accept the world as meaningless and “let the truth be written upon it for you” (5:3); instead, “you are impelled to write upon it what you would have it be” (5:4). We can’t allow God to give the world, and ourselves, our meaning; we want to make our own. The result is an upsetting view of everything. This idea, that what I think is upsetting me is not really the cause of my upset (see Lesson 5 again), is an incredibly useful one. It can work miracles in our experience. I recall the first time this really sank in. I had just gone through a disappointing exchange with my girlfriend, one in which I realized that she didn’t want to spend time

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with me as much as I did with her, and she had an interest in someone else. I was feeling spit upon, put down, a second-class citizen; I was angry at her for not realizing what a prize I was and for making me spend my Saturday evening alone. I was miserable. All of a sudden the thought came to me: “I’m doing this to myself; it isn’t her.” I thought of the song from My Fair Lady where Rex Harrison sings, “I was supremely independent and content before we met. Surely I could always be that way again…and yet.” I realized that I was choosing to see her as the cause of my upset, but it was the way I was thinking about the situation that was making me miserable. If I wanted to, I could still be happy. It was a major revelation to me! I wasn’t sure I liked it, to be honest, but my inner sense kept telling me, “This way lies real liberty.” That was a big beginning for me. Let the world be meaningless to you today. Don’t be so quick to impose your meaning on it. Just let what is so be what it is, without any meaning, and let the Holy Spirit have a chance to write His meaning on it. When your words have been erased, you will see His. That is the ultimate purpose of these exercises. (5:8–9) There is a Workbook-like saying given in the Text that runs along the same line: When your peace is threatened or disturbed in any way, say to yourself: I do not know what anything, including this, means. And so I do not know how to respond to it. And I will not use my own past learning as the light to guide me now. By this refusal to attempt to teach yourself what you do not know [or to write your meaning on the blank slate], the Guide Whom God has given you will speak to you. He will take His rightful place in your awareness the instant you abandon it, and offer it to Him. (T14.XI.6:6–11)

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LESSON 13 • JANUARY 13 “A meaningless world engenders fear.”

Practice instructions Purpose: The same as yesterday. Exercise: Three or four times, for one minute or so (no more). • Close your eyes and repeat the idea. • Open your eyes and look slowly around you. While doing so repeat over and over, “I am looking at a meaningless world.” • Close your eyes and say, “A meaningless world engenders fear, because I think I am in competition with God.” Remarks: Do not worry if you do not believe the closing statement. You may think it is crazy and you may resist it. All of that is fine. Simply note your resistance, whatever forms it takes, and tell yourself that the real reason for it is that this statement awakens your underlying fear of God’s vengeance. Deep inside you believe that by rushing in and writing your meaning on the world’s blank slate you have temporarily defeated God. As a result, you believe you now face His wrath. To cope with this belief you have shoved it down into your unconscious, but today’s concluding statement brings it back toward the surface. This is why you fear the statement and are eager to dismiss it. Because of all this, do not dwell on it or even think of it except during the exercises.

Commentary More specifically than upsetting us, the meaningless world we see sparks fear within us. After spending several days convincing us, so it seems, that the world is meaningless, the Course “reverses course”: Actually, a meaningless world is impossible. Nothing without meaning exists. (1:2–3) The introduction to the Text states that “nothing unreal exists” (TIn.2:3), and now we are told nothing meaningless exists. The situation is not that meaningless things exist and we are afraid because we see them; what is happening is that we think we perceive things without meaning, and rush to write our meaning on them. We see no meaning because we are unwilling to see the meaning already written on them by God. When we see the meaningless it arouses anxiety in us:

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It represents a situation in which God and the ego “challenge” each other as to whose meaning is to be written in the empty space the meaninglessness provides. The ego rushes in frantically to establish its own ideas there, fearful that the void may otherwise be used to demonstrate its own impotence and unreality. And on this alone it is correct. (2:2–4) If the ego did not rush in to give its meaning to things, the meaning established by God would, indeed, demonstrate the unreality of the ego. That is why the ego imagines it sees an empty space of meaninglessness to write in; it fears the meaning God has already given. We assign our own meaning to everything. The Course is insistent that if we did not rush in to write our own meaning, the message we would hear would be one of love and beauty. This is true no matter what the outside “situation” appears to be. For instance, a brother may be totally deceived by his own ego and verbally attacking us. The message we hear in his words, no matter their form, is the message we choose to hear. We assign the meaning we think our brother is giving us. If my mind were attuned to the Holy Spirit, no matter what anyone did or said, I would hear a message that affirms the Christ in me and engenders my love. (For a long—and somewhat complex—section on this very topic, see Text, Chapter 9, Section II, “The Answer to Prayer,” which says, in part, “The message your brother gives you is up to you. What does he say to you? What would you have him say? Your decision about him determines the message you receive” [T-9.II.5:1–4].) The idea that we are in competition with God and fear His vengeance because of our competition may, as the lesson admits, seem preposterous. It asks us to practice the lesson anyhow. At this level we are mainly trying to become aware that we are afraid to leave anything without meaning, although we don’t realize fully why we are afraid of that. It is asking us to work at being willing to say, “I do not know what this means.” We really are afraid of that! The lesson also asks us to note any form of fear carefully. Not to try to overcome it; just notice it. Notice that leaving something without an assigned meaning makes you anxious, and let yourself consider that maybe the reason is that somehow, somewhere deep down in the darkness of your unconscious, you are afraid of the meaning God might write there if you let Him.

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LESSON 14 • JANUARY 14 “God did not create a meaningless world.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To erase the interpretations you have put on the world so that you can see God’s interpretation (just as with the previous two lessons). This process will save you. In its early stages, however, you may often feel as if you are being led into terror. This is only temporary. You will be led through fear and then beyond it forever. Exercise: Three times (unless you find more comfortable), for one minute at most. • With eyes closed, think of all the horrors in the world that cross your mind, anything you are afraid might happen to you or anyone. For each one say, “God did not create that [specify the horror], and so it is not real.” Be very specific in naming the horror or disaster. • Conclude by repeating the idea. Response to temptation: Optional—when anything disturbs you. Feel free to apply the idea to dispel your upsets during the day. A special form has been provided for this: “God did not create a meaningless world. He did not create [specify the situation which is disturbing you], and so it is not real.” This is a very effective practice for regaining peace of mind. You may, in fact, want to give it a try now: Choose a situation that is weighing on you and apply the practice to it. See if at least some of the weight of it does not lift immediately.

Commentary Today’s idea should come as a welcome relief after four days of being told our thoughts are meaningless and are showing us a meaningless world that is upsetting and frightening. The meaningless world we are seeing was not created by God, and “what God did not create does not exist” (1:2). In the book Awaken from the Dream1 by Gloria and Kenneth Wapnick, Gloria wrote about how this idea first attracted her to the Course: . Gloria and Kenneth Wapnick, Awaken from the Dream, 2nd Ed. (Temecula, Cal.: Foundation for A Course in Miracles, 1995). 1

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Hearing firsthand about the devastating effects World War II had on people personally, I concluded that if this world were the best that God could create, I wanted nothing more to do with Him... As I read Jesus’ words explain that God did not create the world, it was as if “lightning bolts” crashed through my head. “Why hadn’t I thought of that?” I kept thinking to myself. “It is so simple; that is the answer.” Finally, after twenty-three years the puzzle in my mind was solved. The Course had supplied the missing piece, and I no longer had to blame God for a world He did not create. To some, the message that God did not create the meaningless world we see comes as salvation; to others, it may be “quite difficult and even quite painful” (3:2). For recognizing that He did not create it entails a corollary truth: we made it up. We are responsible for the world we see. That can lead us “directly into fear” (3:3). The Course faces up to this in many different places through all three volumes. The message it is giving to us, especially in the “early steps” (3:2), can be difficult, painful, and fearful. Many people wonder if something is wrong because they have strong negative reactions to this line of thought in the Course. The answer is, not at all. Perhaps it is those among us who do not have any negative reactions who should be wondering if they are apprehending the Course’s message correctly and realizing its implications. A negative reaction is far more common than a positive one: that I can say with confidence. Be glad, however, that the lesson goes on to say: You will not be left there [in fear]. You will go far beyond it. Our direction is toward perfect safety and perfect peace. (3:4–6) The Course calls our path a journey “through fear to love” (T16.IV.11:1–2). The early distress is avoided by very few indeed, but the direction of the journey is towards a warmth and breadth of love that can barely be imagined as we start out. One word of caution about the particular form of practice today. Notice carefully that the lesson is asking you to say these thoughts to yourself about “your personal repertory of horrors” (6:1). It is not advocating telling another person who is going through some tragedy that it isn’t real; for instance, “Cheer up! God didn’t create the death

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of your husband, so it isn’t real.” In most cases that is not a loving message but an attack, placing you in a “superior” spiritual position to the other person. The lesson is talking about giving this message to yourself. Note also the mention here about our illusions, that “some of them are shared illusions, and others are part of your personal hell” (6:3). Things such as famine and AIDS fall in the “shared illusion” category. There is clear support here for the idea that the illusion of the world is a shared responsibility, not just your personal creation, or mine.

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LESSON 15 • JANUARY 15 “My thoughts are images that I have made.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To introduce you to the process of image making, by which your inner thoughts appear as outer images. Exercise: Three times (four if comfortable), for one minute (less if you feel uneasy). • Repeat the idea to yourself. • Then look about and apply it randomly to whatever you see, saying quite slowly, “This [name of object] is an image that I have made.” Let your eyes rest on the object the whole time you are repeating this. Response to temptation: Optional—whenever you are upset. You may want to use this form: “This [name of situation] is an image that I have made.” This will remind you that the “upsetting” situation you are seeing is not objectively real, but is just your own thoughts appearing in image form.

Commentary Our perception is composed of images made from our thoughts. Because the thoughts appear as images, we do not recognize the thoughts as nothing. Physical sight is nothing more than this, and this is the purpose of physical sight. We gave our body’s eyes the function of seeing these thought images, in order to validate the thoughts we think we are thinking. It is not seeing. It is image making. It takes the place of seeing, replacing vision with illusions. (1:5–7) The Course is quite consistent in its view of our physical sight. It says, for instance: Everything the body’s eyes can see is a mistake, an error in perception, a distorted fragment of the whole without the meaning that the whole would give. (T-22.III.4:3) The body’s eyes see only form. They cannot see beyond what they were made to see. And they were made to look on error and not see past it. (T-22.III.5:3–5)

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What our eyes show us is a mistake. What our eyes show us is an image we have made, and does not portray the truth. They were “made to look on error and not see past it.” Part of what we must begin to learn is to look past the bodily level, to begin to realize that what our eyes are showing us is not necessarily the truth. Our eyes are showing us only the errors of our own minds. There is something beyond the physical that vision can show us. That is the meaning of the “edges of light” (2:2) the lesson refers to. In a workshop I attended, Ken Wapnick remarked that this mention of “light episodes” (3:1) was included in part as an answer to a friend of Helen’s who was seeing light around people and wondering if there was something wrong. The lesson explains that such experiences “merely symbolize true perception” (3:5). The lesson is not trying to say that everyone should have such experiences. It is saying merely that, if such experiences do occur, we should not be disconcerted by them; they are a sign of progress. It is not the symbol of true perception we seek, however, but true perception itself. The meaning of “edges of light” is simply that there is something there to be seen that is beyond the physical. It is to this realization that the lesson is leading us.

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LESSON 16 • JANUARY 16 “I have no neutral thoughts.”

Practice instructions Purpose: A beginning step in learning that every thought has effects and that each one produces either fear and war or love and peace. Exercise: Four or five times (three if there’s strain), for one minute each (reduce if there’s discomfort). • Close your eyes and repeat the idea. • Then search your mind for any thoughts present. Try to make no distinctions among them. Try especially not to overlook any “little” thought. As each thought crosses your mind, hold it in mind and say, “This thought about ______ is not a neutral thought.” Response to temptation: Whenever you are aware of an upsetting thought. Apply the idea to it using this specific form: “This thought about ______ is not a neutral thought, because I have no neutral thoughts.” The point is to make you realize that, by entertaining this thought, you are actively causing yourself fear.

Commentary This could seem like a scary idea, but the main intent is for us to realize how effective our thoughts are. This is an empowering idea, not a threatening one, unless we choose to see it that way. Everything you see is the result of your thoughts. There is no exception to this fact. (1:2–3) Like many of the ideas the Course presents, this one is difficult to believe at first because we are so convinced that our thoughts have nothing to do with most of the things we see. Just in case we let the idea slip by, the lesson adds that there are no exceptions. True thoughts create true things; false thoughts make false things, or illusions. There is nothing to be afraid of here because only the true thoughts create realities; false thoughts only make illusions. No thought, however, is “idle.” “What gives rise to the perception of a whole world can hardly be called idle” (2:2). Every thought in our mind is producing something all the time, contributing to truth or to illusion. The Course is a mind-training course. Its aims to make us

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aware of our thoughts and their effects. It desires us to be intimately involved in the process of choosing the thoughts that occupy our minds and produce their effects in the world around us. We are asked to recognize that no thought is neutral, no thought does nothing to affect the growth of truth or illusion. Every thought expresses either love or fear; there is no in-between. If I look at the way I treat my own thoughts I can see the lesson is correct: I really do tend to slough off certain thoughts as unimportant and not worth bothering about. Every thought is worth bothering about; all fear thoughts are equally destructive. They are also equally unreal. Thus, we need not be guilty about them. Some students of the Course are quick to latch on to the “unreal” part but very slow to acknowledge the “destructive” side; the Course always maintains this balance. Just because something is unreal or illusory does not mean it is unimportant and can be ignored! For instance, at one point the Text says that delay is impossible in eternity but is tragic in time (T-5.VI.1:3). The Course is not advocating an attitude of indifference to the world simply because it is an illusion. Remarks such as “AIDS? It’s only an illusion” or “What starving children? It isn’t real,” are not representative of the true spirit of the Course, although you may hear them in some circles. If AIDS and starvation are in our perception, the thoughts that manifest them must be in our minds, individually or collectively, and therefore we are responsible for healing those thoughts. But I digress from the lesson; time to step off the soapbox. The lesson is pointing out that no thought can be dismissed as trivial, and no thought is neutral. As you practice the lesson there will be some thoughts that will easily be seen to be “not neutral.” If someone steals your car it is fairly easy to acknowledge that your thoughts about it are not neutral. But if you are thinking of which breakfast cereal to eat it is a bit more of a stretch to believe that “This thought about Wheaties is not a neutral thought,” that it is expressing either love or fear. Believe it; it is. As the instructions say, do not “make artificial distinctions” (4:3). The mind is like a light bulb, which is either on or off and never inbetween; our minds are expressing fear or love, and never something in-between, never both, and never nothing.

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LESSON 17 • JANUARY 17 “I see no neutral things.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To continue teaching you the real cause and effect relationship between what you think and what you see. You think that outer events cause your perceptions, but in fact your perceptions are caused by your thoughts. Exercise: Three or four times (three are required), for one minute (less if there’s resistance). • With eyes open, say, “I see no neutral things because I have no neutral thoughts.” • Then look about you, resting your glance on each thing you see long enough to say, “I do not see a neutral [name of object], because my thoughts about [such objects] are not neutral.” Remarks: As usual, it is crucial to treat whatever you see as the same. The carpet may be neutral in itself, but you do not see it that way, because your perception of it arises from thoughts that are inherently non-neutral. Even if the carpet is black and white, figuratively speaking, your thoughts always color it.

Commentary The true meaning of cause and effect in this world, according to the Course, is that thoughts are the cause and the world is the effect. We tend to believe that events or actions in the world cause us to think in certain ways; the Course says the opposite. “It is always the thought that comes first, despite the temptation to believe that it is the other way around” (1:3). We have no neutral thoughts and therefore we see no neutral things. What is our usual tendency when we find ourselves having certain thoughts? We ask ourselves, “What made me feel this way? What made me depressed, or angry, or bored?” But the thought always comes first. It was not anything outside of your mind that caused you to think in a certain way. Rather, your mind caused the world you see. The lesson becomes quite radical in its statements at times: Regardless of what you may believe, you do not see anything that is really alive or really joyous. That is

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because you are unaware as yet of any thought that is really true, and therefore really happy. (3:2–3) I’ve been studying the Course now for ten years and I still have trouble fully accepting the idea that I don’t see anything really alive. I know that the Course states that the body (which is what I see with my eyes) does not die because it has never lived, and so I know intellectually that the Course defines “alive” quite differently than we normally do. By “alive” it obviously must mean something nonphysical, because it writes off the physical body as not being alive at all. But I have to admit that I still need to practice with this lesson because my instinct is still to regard bodies as alive. I have to work at it to remember otherwise. I recall speaking with my friend Lynne a little over a year before her body “died.” She was a student of the Course. Her body had deteriorated rapidly during the preceding year, and after several surgeries was only a shell of what it had been. She remarked to me that she was really learning the truth of what she really was. I said, “I guess you have a little more understanding of what the Course means when it says, ‘I am not a body.’” “I damn well better not be!” she exclaimed, laughing. These two ideas—that nothing I see with my eyes is really alive, and that nothing I see is neutral because my thoughts are not neutral —can be disconcerting. Even so, they have their plus side. The lesson is the same for us all, although for some, like Lynne, it seems to be accelerated. Yet our bodies will wither and decay just as hers did, only a little more slowly. It is a welcome relief to realize that the body’s only meaning is given it by our mind. The mind and spirit are what are alive and real; they are the cause, and the body and its world are only the effects of thoughts.

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LESSON 18 • JANUARY 18 “I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my seeing.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To continue to teach you that your thoughts are not without effect. The preceding lessons have emphasized that they always affect your mind. This lesson emphasizes that they always affect all minds. Exercise: Three or four times, for one minute or so (perhaps less). • Look around you, randomly selecting subjects and resting your glance on each one long enough to say, “I am not alone in experiencing the effects of how I see ______.” • Conclude by repeating the idea.

Commentary The concept that “minds are joined” (1:2) is easy to grasp, but literally far-reaching in its implications. How I see things affects other minds, not just my own. The miracles that the Course can bring into our lives will prove this to us time and time again. A shift in the way I see things can bring about miraculous effects in people around me: A miracle is never lost. It may touch many people you have not even met, and produce undreamed of changes in situations of which you are not even aware. (T1.I.45:1–2) The fact that how I see things affects more than just myself makes the thoughts that give rise to my seeing even more important. How I think and perceive things affects, quite literally, the entire world. By opening my mind to love I can be a conduit of love for the world.

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LESSON 19 • JANUARY 19 “I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To teach you that all minds are joined. Despite being initially unwelcome, this idea must be true for salvation to be possible. Exercise: Three or four (at least three), for one minute or so (shorter if necessary). • Close your eyes and repeat the idea. • Search your mind carefully for the thoughts it contains now. As you consider each one in turn, hold it in your mind and say, “I am not alone in experiencing the effects of this thought about [name central person or theme of thought].” Remarks: Today’s lesson includes the last major mention of a theme that is quite familiar by now: the need to be indiscriminate and random in selecting practice subjects. These early lessons have drilled this into us (it has been mentioned in every lesson except 8, 13, and 14), and so in this lesson the author announces that he will no longer emphasize it. This is not because it is no longer relevant, but because he expects that we have internalized it by now. He now expects us to maintain this practice throughout the rest of the Workbook. He also mentions why it is so important. Being able to apply the idea just as easily to our partner’s body as to a speck on the floor will ultimately enable us to heal cancer just as easily as a cold. Response to temptation: As needed. Apply the idea in response to any unwanted thought. Just realizing that this thought affects everyone will help you let it go.

Commentary Yesterday it was about seeing; today about thinking. “Thinking and its results are really simultaneous, for cause and effect are never separate” (1:4). Thinking is cause; seeing is effect, and they are simultaneous. A baseball flying through your window causes the glass to be broken. Which happens first? The baseball passing through the plane of the glass, or the glass breaking? Obviously both happen at once. So it is with thinking and seeing. When we think, we perceive. The simultaneity is part of what makes it so difficult for us to recognize

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thought as the cause. It is fairly easy for the ego to play the trick of reversing cause and effect, so that we believe that what we see is the cause of what we think. But that isn’t the way it works at all. The idea that minds are joined is exciting, but also, especially at first, quite threatening. There are thoughts I have that I do not want to have shared, but “there are no private thoughts” (2:3). My “private” thoughts affect everyone and everything just as every thought does that engages my mind. The idea can be disconcerting. The lesson tells us that despite resistance, eventually we will all recognize that the idea—of joined minds in which no thought is private—is inevitable “if salvation is possible at all” (2:4). It does not explain why it is inevitable, but just says that we’ll all see it that way before long. Let’s think about it for a minute. If other minds are truly separate from mine, then different wills are also truly possible. That places me in competition with the world, alone against the universe. How can I then be free from fear, if outside forces can at any moment turn against me in vicious attack? If, however, minds are joined, and if what I think affects all of this unified mind, then salvation is possible. Then one choice for peace can affect the entire joined mind towards peace. Salvation is possible; I am not an effect of the world, but the world is my effect. I am empowered to choose. I can choose peace for all of Mind. This is how, in the Course’s view of things, I can become a savior of the world. Let me then determine this day to choose for peace, for healing, and for forgiveness. As I begin to realize that I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts, I will begin to care about what I think, and as I begin to care, I will begin to heal myself and the world along with me.

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LESSON 20 • JANUARY 20 “I am determined to see.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To be determined to have vision and so to receive vision. Exercise: Two per hour (preferably on the half hour). • Repeat the idea. How you repeat it makes all the difference. The lesson asks you to do so “slowly and positively” (5:1), remembering that you are determined to exchange your present state for one you really want. (In fact, you may want to try saying it this way just once right now, and see if that makes a difference.) • If you find at some point that you have forgotten to practice, “do not be distressed...but make a real effort to remember” (5:2) from then on. Remarks: This lesson marks a major shift in the Workbook. If the Workbook has seemed easy up until this point, that was intentional. It cannot stay that easy, however, and reach its goal of the total transformation of your thinking. So beginning now it will give you more of a structure within which to practice. This will include more frequent practice, set times in which to practice, and longer practice. Today’s lesson includes the first two of those. How you respond to this structure is crucial. If you see it as an imposition, as an outside will forcing itself on you, you will either actively or passively rebel against it. Instead, try to see it as the expression of your true will. You want all the things the Course offers you. And you will only get them through having a trained mind, and you will only get that through doing the practice. Therefore, doing the practice today is your own true desire. Response to temptation: Whenever you become upset about a person, situation, or event. Repeat the idea as an emotional remedy. You may want to specify it: “I am determined to see this situation.” If you really want to see this situation differently, you will.

Commentary Today’s lesson does not really ask all that much of us: Every half hour, remember to repeat the words “I am determined to see.” If we are studying the Course this is something we probably truly want.

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You want salvation. You want to be happy. You want peace. (2:3–5) Why then all the foofaraw about our feeling coerced, resentful and opposed to the instructions? Because “this is our first attempt to introduce structure” (2:1), and it will not be the last. Our undisciplined minds have a built-in resistance to structure. So what if it’s good for us? Actually something we want? If someone tells us to do it in a certain way, at certain times, we rebel. We drag our feet. We don’t like being told what to do or how to do it. Our mind is “totally undisciplined” (2:6) and wants to remain that way to protect the ego’s vested interests. The practice asked is extremely simple. So try it. You’ll probably be amazed at how often you forget, how the thought of doing it may flash into your mind only to be postponed because it isn’t convenient at the moment, or because “it isn’t really important,” and then forgotten completely. This is why the Workbook approaches the whole idea of structure with great caution; it knows there will be resistance, and is trying to make us realize just how important this deceptively simple practice really is. This is why it says: “Do not be distressed if you forget to do so, but make a real effort to remember” (5:2). “Your decision to see is all that vision requires” (3:1). If we could really get this lesson, in other words, and truly mean what we are saying, the job would be done. Vision would be ours. “In your determination to see is vision given you” (3:8). This is not a trivial lesson; it is the core of everything the Course is teaching. So let’s put our heart into it today! Let’s do this joyfully, even—dare I say?— religiously, every half hour. Let’s repeat the idea “slowly and positively” (5:1). Let’s “make a real effort to remember” (5:2). Let’s apply it “to any situation, person or event that upsets” us (5:3). You can see them differently, and you will. What you desire you will see. Such is the real law of cause and effect as it operates in the world. (5:4–6)

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LESSON 21 • JANUARY 21 “I am determined to see things differently.”

Practice instructions Exercise: Five times, for one full minute each. • Repeat the idea. • Then close your eyes and search your mind carefully for any situation at any time that arouses anger in you, no matter how mild. Hold each one in mind and say, “I am determined to see [specify person or situation] differently.” Give “little” and “big” thoughts of anger the same attention. Be very specific, even to the point of naming specific attributes in specific people that anger you: “I am determined to see [specify the attribute] in [name of person] differently.” Remarks: In this practice, we are meant to avoid the fallacy that the degree of our anger matters. This fallacy takes two forms. The first is thinking that tiny bits of anger—for instance, mild irritation—are too small to bother including in the exercise. The second is emphasizing certain “obvious” sources of anger, which implies that in these particular cases our anger is truly justified. The truth is that all anger is maximal and none of it is justified. A second fallacy is mentioned as well. This is the belief that our anger is confined to a particular personality trait in someone: “I basically love Jim. I am not angry at him across the board, just at this one particularly annoying trait of his.” This lesson is implying that our anger toward this person is not safely confined in this way; it is across the board. With this fallacy, rather than not letting it influence our practice (as with the previous fallacy), we are supposed to use it in our practice. We are supposed to apply the idea specifically to that trait (see 5:4). Response to temptation: Whenever a situation arouses anger. Repeat the idea, specifying the perceived source of the anger: “I am determined to see [specify person or situation] differently.”

Commentary In this lesson we apply the idea of being determined to see to specific situations that arouse anger, with an emphasis on seeing these situations differently. The meaning of these exercises in connection with transforming our perceptions is quite obvious.

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One thought from this lesson is particularly striking. It is a thought that makes more and more sense to me the longer I work with the Course, studying the Text and practicing the mental disciplines it teaches us: “You will become increasingly aware that a slight twinge of annoyance is nothing but a veil drawn over intense fury” (2:5). The very first “miracle principle” presented in Chapter 1 of the Text says, “There is no order of difficulty in miracles” (T-1.I.1:1). The idea expressed in this lesson closely parallels that concept. There is no order of severity in anger, either; a slight twinge of annoyance is the same as intense fury, and in fact is disguised rage. All forms of anger stem from the same source. Some schools of psychology have long maintained that everyone carries around a deeply suppressed, primal anger. It may be tempered by a veneer of civilization, but underneath, in the subconscious, lies a violent fury. Many have attributed this to our animalistic origins in evolution, but the Course sees the anger in a metaphysical sense. Within us we carry a blinding anger at ourselves because we believe we have attacked reality and succeeded; we have somehow managed to separate ourselves from God and have destroyed the unity of Heaven. We think that in a childish fit of pique over not receiving special treatment and special love, we have ruined our own home and can never go back. We are enraged at ourselves, but, unable to endure the guilt of our own self-hatred, we broadcast our rage outward and deflect our anger onto other objects we believe to be separate from ourselves. The term used for this displacement of anger is “projection.” The ego within us is constantly “cruising,” looking for situations onto which anger can be projected with seeming justification, in order to convince our minds that the cause of the anger is without, and not within. Every flash of anger, ranging from mild irritation up to rage, is a symptom of this same, deep, primal self-hatred, projected onto the world. They are all the same thing. This is why the Course is advising us not to believe that some forms of attack are more justified than others, and not to overlook the “little” thoughts of anger. By making no distinction between “degrees” of anger we are helping ourselves learn that they are, in reality, all the same, and all equally unjustified.

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LESSON 22 • JANUARY 22 “What I see is a form of vengeance.”

Practice instructions Exercise: Five times (at least), for one minute (at least). • Look about you. As your eyes move slowly from one thing to another say, “I see only the perishable. I see nothing that will last. What I see is not real. What I see is a form of vengeance.” • Conclude by asking yourself, “Is this the world I really want to see?” Remarks: The four lines that we are asked to repeat do not seem to logically follow from each other, even though it seems like they are meant to. Based on paragraph 2, I would say they do follow from each other, only in reverse order—meaning, the conclusion comes first and the argument’s foundation comes last. The logic all rests on the idea (mentioned in paragraph 1) that we see the world through angry eyes. As a result, we are convinced that the world must want to get revenge on us for the daggers that came out of our eyes, so to speak. This (unconscious) conviction on our part makes us perceive ourselves surrounded by a world thirsting for vengeance on us. (That explains the fourth line.) The vengeful world we see, therefore, is our own projection. It exists only in our imagination. It is not a real world. (That explains the third line.) And, because it is not real, it does not have the attributes of reality; in this case, permanence. (That explains the first and second lines.) To make this fully clear, let me place the original lines and my explanation side by side: Original lines I see only the perishable. I see nothing that will last. What I see is not real.

What I see is a form of vengeance.

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Explanation I see a world that has no permanence. It has no permanence because permanence is an attribute of reality, and the world I see is not real. It is only a picture in my imagination. This picture is painted by my attack thoughts. They cause me to imagine a world poised to get revenge on me for my attack on it.

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Commentary This is a lesson that I simply did not understand the first few times I went through the Workbook. I’m not entirely sure I understand it now, but it makes a certain sense to me, and to the degree that I do understand it, I’d like to share that understanding with you. Notice one thing, however, as you read through the lesson. What you are asked to actually practice with is not simply the thought that heads the lesson, but quite a bit more, ending with the question: “Is this the world I really want to see?” (3:8). So understanding the lead thought isn’t really the purpose of this lesson; rather, the purpose is to help us realize that we do not really want what we are seeing. We are seeing it, however, because in some part of our mind, a part we have hidden from consciousness, we do want it. We always see what we want to see, and we are seeing what we are seeing because we want to see it. You see what you believe is there, and you believe it there because you want it there. Perception has no other law than this. (T-25.III.1:3–4) If we are seeing what we are seeing because we want to see it, then if this lesson can help us learn we don’t really want it—that we really want something else—it will help us change what we see. Change what we want, and our perception changes with it. If we hold attack thoughts in our mind we must see the world as a vicious place, a dangerous place. It is a world of pain, and “pain is but witness to the Son’s mistakes in what he thinks he is. It is a dream of fierce retaliation for a crime that could not be committed” (WpI.190.2:3–4). As I said yesterday, we are angry at ourselves over what we think we have done, and as a result we are having “a dream of fierce retaliation” for our crimes. As egos we are also angry at reality for not being what we want it to be, for not supporting our wish for separation and specialness. We cannot face our own anger at ourselves, and we cannot support the guilt of our insane rage at reality, so we project it: “Having projected his anger onto the world, he sees vengeance about to strike at him” (1:2). The anger and attack we see in the world is only the reflection of the intensity of our inner rage, the rage we cannot see in ourselves precisely because we have denied it and projected it outward. The world I see thus shows me what I am thinking. “What I see is a form of vengeance” because vengeance is what fills my own mind, although

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I am unaware of it. That I see vengeance in the world is the proof it is in my mind, because that is the law of perception. He will attack, because what he beholds is his own fear external to himself, poised to attack, and howling to unite with him again. Mistake not the intensity of rage projected fear must spawn. It shrieks in wrath, and claws the air in frantic hope it can reach to its maker and devour him. (W-pI.161.8:2–4). “It is from this savage fantasy that you want to escape” (2:1). The words the Course uses—“savage fantasy,” “a dream of fierce retaliation”—are so evocative! If the world looks like this—and surely it does, quite often at least—what must be the state of our minds that spawn it? “This becomes an increasingly vicious circle until he is willing to change how he sees” (1:4). We do want to escape from this savage fantasy. That is the goal of today’s lesson, to help us become willing to change how we see. None of what we are seeing exists, and if we are willing to change how we see, we will no longer see it. The Course’s definition of “real” is “eternal, everlasting, changeless.” What does not last is not real, by definition. “I see nothing that will last” (3:4). Therefore none of it is real, by this definition. If it is not real, what is it? “A form of vengeance” (3:6). Ken Wapnick said once that the world is simply crystallized guilt. This lesson is saying that the world is crystallized attack thoughts, vengeance solidified into a world of attack and counterattack. Is this the world I really want to see? The answer is surely obvious. (3:8–9) Bear in mind that this lesson is working at the level of motivation. It is not telling us how we can see something differently. It knows that if it can get us to the point of wanting something different the battle is over, because what we want, we will see. So if this lesson leaves you thinking, “God! No, I don’t want to see the world like this anymore, but what can I do about it?” then the lesson has been successful. The question will be answered as the lessons progress.

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LESSON 23 • JANUARY 23 “I can escape from the world I see by giving up attack thoughts.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To learn “that you are not trapped in the world you see, because its cause can be changed” (5:1). Exercise: Five times, for about one minute. • Repeat the idea slowly as you look about you. • Then close your eyes and search your mind for thoughts of attack and being attacked. Hold each one in mind and say, “I can escape the world I see by giving up attack thoughts about ______.” Remarks: It is important to include thoughts of attack coming from you and thoughts of attack coming at you. The lesson says that these are just two different forms of the same thought. In fact, if you look closely, you will notice that every attack thought contains both aspects. When you are angry with someone, there is always an element of “He caused me pain in some way (which means he somehow attacked me) and that’s why I am angry.” And whenever you see someone attacking you, there is an accompanying anger, displeasure, or frustration directed at him. Thus, it is all the same, and it is all attack. Seeing this can motivate us to let it all go. Response to temptation: Whenever you notice yourself having attack thoughts. Repeat the idea as a way of dispelling those thoughts. You might want to make it specific by using the same form as above: “I can escape the world I see by giving up attack thoughts about ______.”

Commentary This is one example of a statement that sums up the message of ACIM for us. We do not escape from the world by controlling it, manipulating it, fixing it, or trying to make it better. We escape by an act of mind, by giving up attack thoughts. The world I see is the effect of attack thoughts in my mind, and therefore I can “escape” from it by changing my mind. This is “the only way out of fear that will ever succeed. Nothing else will work; everything else is meaningless” (1:1– 2). “It is with your thoughts, then, that we must work” (1:5). The Text puts it like this:

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You must change your mind, not your behavior, and this is a matter of willingness. You do not need guidance except at the mind level. Correction belongs only at the level where change is possible. Change does not mean anything at the symptom level, where it cannot work. (T-2.VI.3:4–7) The world is the symptom level; the mind is the level of causation. It is very hard for most people to accept this dictum of the Course: “There is no point in trying to change the world” (2:3). As often as I have read this I keep running my head up against it. I find myself trying to change some outward factor, something in the world around me, thinking that such a change will somehow make things better. All this accomplishes is to alleviate some symptoms, like taking a cough drop when I have a cold. It cures nothing. Or, as Marianne Williamson has said, it is like trying to solve the problems on the Titanic by rearranging the deck chairs. What works is changing my thoughts about the world, because my attack thoughts are the cause of the world I see. “You see the world that you have made, but you do not see yourself as the image maker” (4:1). We don’t recognize the power of our mind; we use the very images made by the mind to mask the mind’s power. We resist being tagged as the image maker. We want it to be someone else’s fault, even God’s. Vision already holds a replacement for everything you think you see now. Loveliness can light your images, and so transform them that you will love them, even though they were made of hate. For you will not be making them alone. (4:4–6) Every single thing we made out of our hate, our attack, and our rage can be transformed if we join with the Holy Spirit to let His light shine on them. Every special relationship, whether it seems hateful or loving, can become a source of blessing to the world. Every act of vengeance can be turned into salvation. This is what a miracle does. “The holiest of all the spots on earth is where an ancient hatred has become a present love” (T-26.IX.6:1). We are not trapped in the world “because its cause can be changed” (5:1). Then follows a wonderfully brief summary of the process, which Ken Wapnick has labeled the three steps of forgiveness. It is found in a single sentence: “This change requires,

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first, that the cause be identified and then let go, so that it can be replaced” (5:2). 1. “This change requires, first, that the cause be identified….” We must recognize mind as the cause. We must become aware that we are constantly “making” the ego every moment within our own minds, by our thoughts. We must become aware that we are responsible for what we see. 2. “…and then let go….” Having recognized the mind as cause, we must choose to change our mind about the world. We must realize that the thoughts we have been thinking are not the thoughts we want because, as the lesson said yesterday, we have realized this is not the world we want to see. It does not say anything here about coming up with new thoughts; it merely says we let go of the old ones. All that is needed is a willingness for change, a recognition that “I no longer want this.” 3. “…so that it can be replaced.” The third step is the replacement of attack thoughts with holy thoughts, thoughts of love and peace. The next sentences are extremely important here: “The first two steps in this process require your cooperation. The final one does not” (5:3–4). The replacement step is not our job! We cooperate in identifying the cause, uncovering the ego within our minds, and we cooperate in letting go of those ego thoughts, but the replacement with God’s thoughts is not our job. That just happens. When something happens to upset me, this is all I need to remember: 1. The cause is not outside, but is instead my own thoughts. 2. I do not want these thoughts. Step 3 takes care of itself, for if I take the first two steps, I will see that my false images have already been replaced. The true thoughts spoken of earlier are already in my mind, but they are masked by the false ones. Remove the false, and the true is seen to be already there. Within the practice instructions there is one other idea worth singling out: Be sure to include both your thoughts of attacking and being attacked. Their effects are exactly the same because they are exactly the same. (7:1–2) An “attack thought” is not just a thought I have about attacking another; it is also a thought of being attacked. If everything I see is a

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reflection of my thoughts, then what seems to be attack coming at me from outside is really my own thought of attack bouncing back at me. Fears of all kinds are attack thoughts. Uneasiness when a highway patrol car cruises by is an attack thought. Worry about competition at work, or in a relationship, is an attack thought. Cheering when the Death Star blows up is an attack thought. Watch your mind on Super Bowl Sunday! We have a lot of giving up to do. The result is worth it.

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LESSON 24 • JANUARY 24 “I do not perceive my own best interests.”

Practice instructions Exercise: Five times, for two minutes. • Repeat the idea. • With eyes closed, search your mind for unresolved situations that you’ve been concerned about. When you find one, name all the goals you hope this situation will end up meeting for you, all the outcomes you are desiring, at least all that you can find. Say, “In the situation involving ______, I would like ______ to happen, and ______ to happen....” Once you cannot find any more, say, “I do not perceive my own best interests in this situation.” This line should simply articulate what you have already observed in uncovering your goals. You should see that many of them cannot be met together, by the same situation, and that others cannot be met by this situation. • After saying that line, repeat the whole procedure with a new situation, and so on until the time is up. Remarks: The important thing in these exercises is to be honest with yourself. It can be humiliating to admit just how many impossible and contradictory hopes you have crammed into a single situation. But admitting that is the whole point of this exercise. That is what will show you that today’s idea really is true for you. So be unusually honest, as well as careful and patient, in uncovering all the goals you have stuffed into the pockets of this situation.

Commentary Our actions in any situation are determined by our perception of the situation, and as we have been seeing for the last twenty-three lessons, our perceptions are, to put it mildly, unreliable. The lesson says it more bluntly: our perceptions are “wrong” (1:3). There is no way, then, that we can possibly know what our own best interests are in any situation. The exercises for today are designed to bring four things to our attention (Paragraph 6): • We are making a large number of demands on the situation that have nothing to do with it.

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• Many of our goals are contradictory. • We have no unified outcome in mind. • We must be disappointed in regard to some of our goals no matter what the outcome is. We have all experienced this, particularly in making major decisions. Suppose I receive a fabulous job offer that pays me more money than I ever dreamed of and involves doing something I like. Sounds good at first. Then I realize I will have to relocate to a part of the country I don’t like, I’ll have to be willing to travel extensively, and I will frequently be required to work long hours and weekends. My mind suddenly becomes filled with all the conflicting goals. I may find I am expecting the job to make me happy, somehow. Perhaps I am thinking the job should provide me with spiritual companions. I’ll have to leave my friends behind. And so on, and so on... The more I have worked with the Course, the more I realize that this is not just a beginning lesson; it is something that applies to nearly every situation I get into. I am constantly reminding myself that I don’t know what my own best interests are in one situation after another. I find it most important to do so when things seem to be relatively clear, when I think I do know what I want and need. If I think I know my best interests, I cannot be taught what they really are. The best mental state I can maintain, then, is “I don’t know.” I can acknowledge my preferences, I can admit that I think I would like certain things to happen, but I need to learn to add, “I’m not certain this is the best.” If I pray for something, I can add, “Let X happen, or something better.” I remain open-minded, ready to accept that what I think about the situation may not cover all the bases, and probably does not. That is the intent behind today’s idea: to open our minds to the possibility that we may not know, and may need assistance.

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LESSON 25 • JANUARY 25 “I do not know what anything is for.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To begin to learn that the purposes you assign things are totally meaningless. This will help you give up those purposes. Exercise: Six times, for two minutes. • Repeat the idea slowly. • Then look about you and let your glance rest on each thing that catches your eye. Keep looking at it long enough to say quite slowly, “I do not know what this ______ is for.” Then move on to the next thing. Make no distinctions between things near or far, important or unimportant, human or nonhuman. Remarks: As you look at an object and repeat the idea, you may become aware of just how much you see that object as existing to serve your personal interests. This includes inanimate objects as well as animate ones, such as human bodies. We see everything in our environment as having the purpose of serving this separate self. That simply cannot be what its true purpose is.

Commentary Have you noticed how the pace of recommended practice is accelerating? Yesterday we moved from five one-minute periods to five two-minute periods; today we increase to six two-minute periods. How many of us are making a serious effort to follow these instructions? Remember how the introduction said that we aren’t asked to believe the ideas, accept them, or welcome them; even active resistance is okay. All that is asked is that we “use them” (WpI.In.9:4), to “apply the ideas as you are directed to do” (WpI.In.8:3). Nothing but that is required to make them effective. But applying them as directed is required, if we want them to have effect in our lives. We don’t know what anything is for. The obvious question is: “What is it for?” This lesson answers the question. “Everything is for your own best interests” (1:5). Obviously that relates to yesterday’s lesson, “I do not perceive my own best interests.” What is for my best interests? Everything. We don’t know that and we certainly don’t believe it. We evaluate everything “in terms of ego goals” (2:1), and since “the ego is not

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you” (2:2), that cannot give us any idea of what our best interests are. We are picking and choosing the things that support our ego, which is not our Self, and therefore, clearly, we are actually undermining our true Self. (The statement that “the ego is not you” is particularly important; it isn’t something we would realize without being told.) We look at the world from the ego perspective and we literally “assign” purposes to things, purposes that will support our ego. When things don’t live up to our expectations, we get upset. All our goals involve “personal” interests. Yet, “Since you have no personal interests, your goals are really concerned with nothing” (3:2). We don’t really have personal interests because the “person” we think of when we say those words isn’t real. We have no real goals that we do not share in common with all living things, because all living things are connected, and the sharing is what makes the goals real. Shared goals recognize the reality of who we are. Ego goals do not. This is why we are extremely confused about what things are for. The lesson points out that, on a superficial level, we do know what things are for; we know a telephone is for talking to someone not physically present. “Yet purpose cannot be understood at these levels” (4:3). For instance, we don’t understand why we want to reach someone by phone. We may think we understand. You might be calling the store to order a book. But why do you want the book? Why call now, at precisely this moment? There is a deeper purpose in everything that we do not understand, nor can we understand it as long as we think our conscious goals are the real ones. We have “to be willing to give up the goals [we] have established for everything” (5:1). The entire foundation of our judgment is rotten because it rests on the idea that there are “things” outside of us that differ from us. There is nothing outside of us; everything is part of us. As long as we are coming from that false premise, our goals will be skewed and our judgments will be faulty. I find it very helpful to remember that I don’t know what anything means and I don’t know what it is for. A phone call may bring “bad news,” but I can say, “I do not know what this phone call is for; I do not know what this situation is for, and therefore I cannot judge it.” The Course insists on our total ignorance. “The confusion between your real creation and what you have made of yourself is so profound that it has become literally impossible for you to know anything” (T3.V.3:2). That’s pretty definite, isn’t it? “Literally impossible.” This isn’t any figure of speech. Obviously, if you literally know nothing, judgment is impossible.

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Because we’ve confused ourselves with our egos, we can’t know anything. Our belief in our identity as separate beings, located in bodies, has become an unquestioned core belief behind our every thought. We evaluate everything in terms of ego goals (W-pI.25.2:1). Before we even begin to evaluate what anything means we have presupposed that, whatever it is and whatever it means, it is not us; it is other. From that premise it is literally impossible to know or understand anything because it is not other. It is part of us. A very young baby in its crib goes through a process of learning that its foot or hand is part of itself. To begin with, the baby does not know that. You can watch the baby, sometimes, treating the foot as if it were a foreign object. We are all still infants in this sense because we don’t recognize parts of ourselves when we see them; we think they are something else. Because we think they are something else, we are unable to form judgments that make any sense. Our judgments are not simply exaggerated or inaccurate, they are so wide of the mark they’re ludicrous. Let us remember not our own ideas of what the world is for. We do not know. (T-31.I.12:2–3) If we don’t know what anything is for, we can’t judge it! We can’t evaluate whether or not it is fulfilling its purpose because we don’t know what its purpose is. We aren’t being asked to acquire all this knowledge we lack; we are asked to become still and to remember how much we don’t know (see T-31.II.6:4). The Text tells us that there is no statement that the world is more afraid to hear than this: I do not know the thing I am, and therefore do not know what I am doing, where I am, or how to look upon the world or on myself. (T-31.V.17:7) It goes on to say that learning this is the birth of salvation. This is where learning starts: admitting how incapable of judging we are. All of these things we don’t know! Recognizing our ignorance is the birth of salvation because, until we admit we don’t know, we won’t ask for help. As long as we think we know, we block true knowing. Little children recognize that they do not understand what they perceive, and so they ask what it means. Do not make the mistake of believing that you understand

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what you perceive, for its meaning is lost to you….Yet while you think you know its meaning, you will see no need to ask it of Him. You do not know the meaning of anything you perceive. Not one thought you hold is wholly true. The recognition of this is your firm beginning. (T11.VIII.2:2–3, 5; 3:1–3).

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LESSON 26 • JANUARY 26 “My attack thoughts are attacking my invulnerability.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To realize that how vulnerable you feel is due not to how the world treats you, but strictly to your own thoughts; specifically, to your attack thoughts. Relinquishing these thoughts is the road to feeling truly invulnerable. Exercise: Six times, for two minutes (cut in half if you become uncomfortable). • Repeat the idea. • Close your eyes and pick a situation that has been concerning you, that has been on your mind. First name the situation: “I am concerned about _____.” Then go over each potential outcome (ideally, about five or six) that you have been afraid might happen. For each one say, “I am afraid _____ will happen,” and then tell yourself, “That thought is an attack upon myself.” This is the punch line. This is the whole point of the exercise. What is attacking you is not the external outcome, but your thought that you are vulnerable to that outcome. • When you run out of outcomes for that situation, repeat this procedure with other situations until the time is up. • Repeat the idea to close. Remarks: Try to be both honest and thorough. If you only go through two or three situations, that is all right. We do not like to admit to ourselves just how many fearful possibilities we see facing us. Consequently, the outcomes you are really frightened of may only occur to you after you think you have completely exhausted your list. However, as this lesson advises, try to treat the frightening outcomes the same as the mildly worrisome ones. All of them are just different permutations of your belief that you are vulnerable.

Commentary The American Heritage dictionary defines “invulnerable” as “immune to attack.” So to believe I can be attacked means, by definition, that I believe I am not invulnerable. That much is obvious. There is a little bit of logic in the first paragraph that might slip by without careful reading:

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You see attack as a real threat. That is because you believe that you can really attack. (1:2–3) It is my belief that I am capable of attack that makes me fear attack from without; if I can attack, so can everyone else. My fear of attack, therefore, comes from the projection of my own belief about myself! It comes from my belief that I am not a wholly loving being, but rather I am malicious, malign and wicked. That is what the second paragraph is all about. “What would have effects through you must also have effects on you” (1:4). This is why, as Lesson 23 said in the last paragraph, thoughts of attacking and thoughts of being attacked are exactly the same. My belief in attack within myself, acting through me, will also have effects on me. “It is this law that will ultimately save you” (1:5). What that is referring to is the truth, much emphasized in the Course, that the way I find forgiveness is by giving it; the way I receive healing is to heal others. But we are “misusing” that law now, projecting guilt instead of extending love. So we need to learn how to use it for our own best interests, rather than against them (a reference to Lesson 24). Attack thoughts weaken me in my own eyes, whether they are fearful thoughts of assault from without, or aggressive thoughts of attack on another. The strong do not have enemies, as it implies elsewhere (see T-23.In.1:5). If I can let go of attack thoughts I will perceive my invulnerability; my “vulnerability or invulnerability is the result of [my] own thoughts” (4:1). “Nothing except your thoughts can attack you” (4:2). That is a thought I have meditated on for years, and have proved valid in my own experience. It is particularly difficult to believe at first; that’s okay. Work with it. It is an empowering thought. (In this light you might want to read over Chapter 10’s introduction in the Text.) The instructions for today’s lesson are longer and quite detailed. Read them carefully. This is a real mental process we are to engage in. In thinking of a situation we are to “go over every possible outcome” (7:3), referring to it very specifically. The lesson emphasizes being thorough, and taking time with each situation.

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LESSON 27 • JANUARY 27 “Above all else I want to see.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To bring closer the day when you want vision more than everything else. Exercise: At least every half hour (three or four times an hour is suggested). Simply repeat the idea. You can do this even in the middle of conversation. Don’t worry if you don’t fully mean the idea. Repeat it to bring closer the day when you will mean it. If repeating it arouses fear of having to give up something, add, “Vision has no cost to anyone,” and, if still afraid, say, “It can only bless.” Remarks: This is a very important lesson, the second lesson in frequent practice (the first was Lesson 20). It is clearly serious about this frequency. At the beginning of the day you are supposed to set the interval you will use (e.g., every twenty minutes, every thirty minutes). If you have not done that yet, it would be good to do so now. Then, for the rest of the day, you are asked to do your best to stick to the frequency you yourself chose. The Course realizes that, in all likelihood, you will not do this perfectly. When you forget a practice period, do not get angry with yourself. This eventually makes you feel like giving up (and is, in fact, an ego ploy to engineer just this outcome; see W-pI.95.7:3-5, 10:1-2). Just get back to your practicing as if nothing happened. What is important is not lamenting past failures to practice, but doing the practice in the present and future. The benefits of this can be enormous. Just one truly sincere repetition can put you forward years in your development.

Commentary This is reminiscent of Lesson 20, “I am determined to see,” to which a subtle reference is made in the first line: “Today’s idea expresses something stronger than mere determination.” It puts the desire to see into first place, “above all else.” I want to see more than I want anything else. If we mean this, we will choose the path that leads to vision every time, no matter what other lesser goal might be tempting us. The lesson recognizes that the idea may not be wholly true for us yet. Since desire determines vision, if it were now wholly true you

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would already see, and therefore would not need the lesson! So working with a lesson like this is not hypocritical; it is an exercise intended specifically for people for whom the idea is not yet wholly accepted, designed to move us closer to the day when it will be. The phrase “above all else” may tempt us to think we are being asked to sacrifice. “Vision at any cost!” Therefore the lesson suggests that if we feel uneasy about unreservedly committing ourselves to vision, we should add this thought: “Vision has no cost to anyone” (2:3). If that isn’t enough, add, “It can only bless” (2:5). Put them all together: “Above all else I want to see, and vision has no cost to anyone. It can only bless.” This hints at an idea stated clearly many times in the Course: this path does not believe in sacrifice. It says we are asked only to sacrifice illusions, and that this is in reality only an illusion of sacrifice. “Nothing real can be threatened” (T-In.2:2). Still, the lesson is leading us toward this kind of single-minded, unreserved determination to have true vision. We do need to be willing to put vision above anything that seems to compete with it. It may seem at times that we are being asked to give things up, and we may actually have to give them up, but when we do, we will realize we have given up nothing we truly wanted. The entire process is perfectly safe, and entails no real loss of any kind. The practice requirements suddenly leap into high gear in this lesson: repeat the idea “at least every half hour” (3:2). That’s at least every half hour, “and more if possible. You might try for every fifteen or twenty minutes” (3:2–3). (Things will ease up again tomorrow.) Specific structure, with a set time schedule, is recommended. All we are asked to do each of these times is to repeat the one sentence to ourselves: “Above all else I want to see.” This is not a big deal. There isn’t any reason we can’t do it, even in the middle of a conversation— if we want to, if we are willing. The real question is, how often will you remember? How much do you want today’s idea to be true? Answer one of these questions and you have answered the other. (4:1–3) How often we remember will be the measure of how much we really want to see above all else. This will be a very revealing day! Notice carefully how we are supposed to deal with the fact that we probably will forget and come nowhere near the ideal of every fifteen minutes. It says a lot about how the Workbook views this whole

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matter of “practice.” Basically it says, “Don’t let your ‘failure’ bother you; just get back on track immediately.” All that it takes to save “many years of effort” (4:6) is to, just once during the day, repeat the idea with perfect sincerity. To achieve that one time, many repetitions are needed. Simply do the best you can—but let it be the best you can do.

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LESSON 28 • JANUARY 28 “Above all else I want to see things differently.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To commit to really seeing, to commit to withdrawing your preconceptions about things and opening your mind to seeing them with true vision. You will make this commitment one object at a time. By committing to seeing one thing truly, you are really committing to seeing everything truly. Exercise: Six times, for two minutes. • Repeat the idea. • Then apply it randomly to whatever you see about you, giving each subject equal sincerity. Let your eyes rest on each one long enough to say, slowly and thoughtfully, “Above all else I want to see this ______ differently.” Realize that in saying this you are making a request, a request to withdraw the purpose you have laid on this object, and to see the purpose that God has given it, “the purpose it shares with all the universe” (5:3). By seeing this one object truly, then, you could see the purpose of everything. You could gain total vision. Remarks: Each application of the idea (to the table, to the chair, to the foot) is the making of a commitment. So try to practice in this spirit. With each repetition, try to mean what you are saying. Do not rush through the words thoughtlessly. Try to say them with sincerity. Say them thoughtfully. Do not worry about whether you will follow through with these commitments, for that inhibits you from making them. And you will never keep them unless you first make them.

Commentary The thought that I could gain vision from just a table, or any random thing for that matter, if I could look on it with a completely open mind, is staggering. It means that I have been surrounded all my life by people and things, any one of which could have brought me enlightenment, and I have not responded. The computer screen I look at as I write, if seen without any of my own ideas, could open up and show me “something beautiful and clean and of infinite value, full of happiness and hope” (5:2). I still find that hard to believe. Oh, I don’t doubt it, in one sense. Somehow it makes sense to believe that an enlightened being, like

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Jesus for instance, would see, as the poet put it, “the universe in a grain of sand.” But I guess what I doubt is that I could see that. I’ve looked at so many tables in my life and none of them ever spoke to me. I look at my desk now and I see—a desk. “Hidden under all your ideas about it is its real purpose, the purpose it shares with all the universe” (5:3). Ah! A clue as to what this lesson is getting at; we’re talking about a shared purpose. We’re asking to see a common purpose that binds everything as one. I think a desk is for writing on, a table is for eating on, a fork is for spearing my food, a computer is for sending messages to folks on the Internet. I see a whole bunch of different purposes, each thing with its own, separate purpose. But they all share a purpose. As does my body, the sky, the moon, everything I can see. What is that purpose? That is what I am asking to see. That is something worth asking for. Nothing around you but is part of you. Look on it lovingly, and see the light of Heaven in it. So will you come to understand all that is given you. In kind forgiveness will the world sparkle and shine, and everything you once thought sinful now will be reinterpreted as part of Heaven. How beautiful it is to walk, clean and redeemed and happy, through a world in bitter need of the redemption that your innocence bestows upon it! What can you value more than this? For here is your salvation and your freedom. And it must be complete if you would recognize it. (T-23.In.6:1–8)

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LESSON 29 • JANUARY 29 “God is in everything I see.”

Practice instructions Purpose: “To begin to learn how to look on all things with love, appreciation and open-mindedness” (3:1). To see the holy purpose that resides in everything. Longer: Six times, for two minutes. • Repeat the idea. • Then apply it to randomly chosen objects in your visual field, naming each one. Say, “God is in this [magazine, finger]” or “God is in that [body, door].” Realize that you are not claiming that God is somehow physically in that object, but that God has assigned His purpose to it, a purpose which is part of Him. Remember your training in this practice. Start near to you and then extend farther out. Keep looking at each object until you are done repeating the sentence. And make sure you avoid “self-directed selection” (4:2), something that might be more challenging with this idea. Frequent reminders: At least once an hour. Repeat the idea slowly while looking slowly about you.

Commentary The idea for today explains why you can see all purpose in everything. It explains why nothing is separate, by itself or in itself. And it explains why nothing you see means anything. In fact, it explains every idea we have used thus far, and all subsequent ones as well. Today’s idea is the whole basis for vision. (1:1–5) Clearly, today’s idea is pivotal in the Course’s thought system, and not simply a nice, sentimental idea. Nor is it mere pantheism, which teaches that nature and God are the same. Elsewhere the Course clearly teaches, “There is no world!” (W-pI.132.6:2), so this is not saying that nature and God are identical. “Certainly God is not in a table…as you see it” (2:3). As I see things, nothing means anything. A table is merely a table, a flat surface to eat on or play poker on. It has no eternal purpose; its

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purposes are all ephemeral. Seen like this, the table does not reveal God, but helps hide Him. God is not in the physical table, but He can be seen through or by means of the table. If the table shares the purpose of the universe, it must share the purpose of the Creator of the universe. That purpose is our happiness, our joy, our completion, which is necessary to His. “Everything is for your own best interests. That is what it is for; that is its purpose; that is what it means” (W-pI.25.1:5–6). “Purpose” is the key word in this and the last lesson. God is in everything I see because everything shares God’s purpose. My sight is a veil across the truth that shines in everything, but vision can shine through that veil if I allow it. The way I perceive, God is not in everything; in fact, He is in nothing. If mere physical sight were enough we would all have seen God long ago. We made our sight to obscure Him, but seen with the vision of Christ, everything can reveal Him. Nothing is as it appears to you. Its holy purpose stands beyond your little range. (3:4–5). As I first read this lesson I was puzzled by the statement that the idea for the day, “God is in everything I see,” explained the earlier idea that nothing we see means anything. On the face of it, if God is in everything I see, it ought to give those things profound meaning; I would see them as sharing the purpose of the universe, the purpose of the Creator. How can I logically proceed from “God is in everything I see” to “Nothing I see means anything?” Finally I noticed a distinction that should have been obvious from the beginning: the distinction made between “seeing” or “sight” and “vision.” The Course makes this distinction quite consistently throughout, but because my mind still tends to think of sight and vision as the same thing, I failed to notice it here. “Sight” refers to our normal mode of seeing, our belief that what our physical eyes show us is real, instead of the result of a desire within the mind and the projection of meaning from the mind, imposed on what is seen. “Vision,” on the other hand, is another kind of sense altogether, virtually unrelated to the physical eyes. Notice that the lesson says, “Today’s idea is the whole basis of vision” (1:5, emphasis mine). “When vision has shown you the holiness that lights up the world, you will understand today’s idea perfectly” (3:6, emphasis mine). It is vision that reveals God in everything; mere sight does not reveal Him. God is in everything I see,

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but sight does not show Him to me; that is why nothing I see means anything. “You do not see them [with vision] now” (3:2). God is there, but sight does not see Him; sight is overlooking the very thing that gives everything the meaning it has. We could therefore revise the earlier statement to say: “Nothing I see means anything, the way I see it.” Meaning is there but I am blind to it. The world you see must be denied, for sight of it is costing you a different kind of vision. You cannot see both worlds, for each of them involves a different kind of seeing, and depends on what you cherish.(T-13.VII.2:1– 2, my emphasis on the words “sight” and “vision”) The idea that God is in everything is “the whole basis for vision” (1:5). It is the foundation for a “different kind of seeing” (T13.VII.2:2). In order to see with vision I have to be willing to deny, or disregard, my current mode of seeing, which is limited to the physical and reports back to me only what my ego wants to see. If I recognize that God is in everything, yet I do not see Him with my eyes, there must be a different kind of seeing, and I will be led to desire it. I will ask for vision. The lesson speaks of the “little range” (3:5) of our kind of seeing. Imagine, as an analogy, that God is only visible in the infrared part of the spectrum (of course He is not visible in any physical manner at all). Our eyes simply do not see infrared radiation, so even if it is present we see nothing. The range of physical sight is very narrow; there are all kinds of “light” we cannot see: infrared, ultraviolet, heat, radiation, radio waves, microwaves, and so on. God is in everything, but He is outside the range of our physical sight; we need a different kind of vision. I think that in a sense the lesson is trying to arouse a certain discontent within us. It provokes the disturbing question: “If God is in everything, how come I don’t see Him?” It makes us aware of the limitations of what we have believed to be “sight.” It makes us aware of its limited range, and evokes within us the desire for a new kind of vision that sees beyond this limited range, and sees the purpose of the universe in everything. Tomorrow’s lesson will continue to instruct us in finding vision.

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LESSON 30 • JANUARY 30 “God is in everything I see because God is in my mind.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To learn a new way of seeing. In this kind of seeing, what you see does not come in from the external world, through your body’s eyes, or from you projecting your illusions onto the world. Rather, it comes from you “projecting” the truth that is in your mind onto everything you see. Exercise: As often as possible throughout the day, for one minute. Look about you and apply the idea to your visual field and even to what lies beyond that field, out of sight. Make sure that, for several of the exercises, you close your eyes and apply the idea to your inner world.

Commentary As yesterday’s lesson was the “whole basis” (W-pI.29.1:5) for vision, today’s idea is “the springboard” (1:1). That God is in everything I see forms the foundation. Knowing that this is so “because God is in my mind” is what can propel us from mere sight into vision. From this idea will the world open up before you, and you will look upon it and see in it what you have never seen before. Nor will what you saw before be even faintly visible to you. (1:2–3) Fundamental to understanding what the Course is talking about is the fact that what we see is quite directly caused by what is in our mind. The commonsense idea of perception is that something outside causes an impression, through my senses, on my mind. The reality is the reverse, according to the Course. The thoughts of my mind are projected outward and cause my perceptions. “Projection makes perception,” says the Text in two different places (T-13.V.3:5; T21.In.1:1; compare with T-10.In.2:7). What this lesson attempts to teach us is “a new kind of ‘projection’” (2:1). We might call it “positive projection.” Instead of using projection to get rid of thoughts we are uncomfortable with, we are attempting to see in the world what we want to see in our own minds. What I want to see, for one thing, is my own innocence.

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Therefore I am attempting to see the world as innocent. I am choosing my thoughts and deliberately “projecting” them onto the world. I want to see myself as having God in my mind, and so I choose to see everything as having God in it. If all things contain God, and I contain God, then we are joined. “Thus, we are trying to join with what we see, rather than keeping it apart from us. That is the fundamental difference between vision and the way you see” (2:4–5). Our kind of seeing emphasizes differences and distinctions; vision emphasizes sameness. “Real vision is not only unlimited by space and distance, but it does not depend on the body’s eyes at all” (5:1). It is becoming clearer with each lesson that the vision being talked about has nothing at all to do with our physical sight. In the Course’s thought system, our eyes do not see at all; they are merely the means for deception. We can include in our vision things beyond the range of physical sight. This is a seeing done with our minds, not with eyes. “The mind is its only source” (5:2). Now I recall our earlier lesson, “Above all else I want to see” (Lesson 28) with a stronger sense of purpose. I want vision; I want this other kind of seeing that sees God everywhere. I want it because somehow I instinctively know that if I can see things that way, I will also be able to see myself that way. If I can see you as a holy child of God, innocent and blameless, I will know that I am seeing a reflection of myself. I want to see myself that way, so I want to see you that way. God is in my mind. The world mirrors what is in my mind. How, then, do I want to see the world? Am I willing to see the world with God in it? If not, it only reflects the fact that I am unwilling and afraid to see His presence in my mind.

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LESSON 31 • JANUARY 31 “I am not the victim of the world I see.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To begin declaring your release. Longer: Two times, morning and evening, for three to five minutes. • Repeat the idea two or three times while looking slowly about you. • Then close your eyes and apply the idea to your inner world, the level of cause. Let whatever thoughts that want to come arise, be noted, and then allowed to pass by. As with Lesson 10, it is important to stay detached from your stream of thoughts. Try seeing it as either a strange parade of disorganized, meaningless objects or as a series of leaves floating by on a stream. Let the stream keep moving; don’t stop it to dwell on a particular thought. As you watch it move by, repeat the idea as often as you want, with no hurry. Frequent reminders: As often as possible (suggestion: several times per hour). Repeat idea. While doing so, consciously remember that you are declaring your freedom from all outer causation, and freeing other minds in the process. Try a repetition now in that spirit—it will take you five seconds. Response to temptation: When you feel like anything in the world is victimizing you. Repeat the idea. You will get more from it if you say it as a declaration that you refuse to be slave to outer events and to your ego’s reactions. Remarks: Today’s lesson marks an important development. The daily practice now begins to separate out into two levels: longer practice periods, which will generally be done morning and evening; and shorter, frequent practice throughout the day (this includes both frequent reminders and response to temptation). This is a major step toward the eventual fourfold structure of morning and evening practice periods, hourly remembrance, frequent reminders, and response to temptation.

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Commentary As you must have noticed when you read today’s lesson, there isn’t a lot of metaphysical thought in it. In fact there is almost none, except in the lead thought quoted above. The rest of the lesson is practice instructions. So I’ll weight my comments in approximately the same way. The one sentence that heads the lesson is plenty in itself, however. If you think about it, it is amazing how many ways we see ourselves as victims of the world. We go through life feeling like victims—of the weather, of the jerk who cuts you off in traffic or swerves into the parking space you were aiming for, of your computer disk when “it” loses your file, of your housemate who uses the last of the hot water just before your shower, of the slow service in the restaurant, of the traffic that makes you late for your appointment. Then, of course, there are the people who may deliberately and malevolently terrorize you in our cities (or perhaps in your home). To assert that “I am not the victim of the world I see” can be liberating and empowering. It is remarkable how these simple words can cause feelings of weakness and helplessness to wash away. Try it! You’ll like it. Oddly enough, we also feel victimized by unseen enemies and even our own thoughts. Ever have an anxiety attack? Or find yourself feeling gouged by the IRS? A victim of an unfair “system”? Plagued by self-doubt? You are not the victim of your inner world any more than of your outer world. “You will escape from both together, for the inner is cause of the outer” (2:5). This lesson introduces what will become the basic practice outline for most of the Workbook, and for ongoing practice for Workbook graduates: 1. Two longer practice periods, morning and evening, in which you apply the idea for the day on a sustained basis. 2. Frequent repetitions through the day, as often as possible (a study of other references to this indicates that four or five times per hour is intended). 3. Using the idea as a “response to temptation” whenever it arises. The only element of Workbook practice not present in this lesson is specific hourly or half-hourly periods of shorter practice, in length somewhere in between #1 and #2 above. That appears as the Workbook goes along to build a habit of practice on the structure of

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the clock, and then is gradually phased out as the habit (presumably) has been established. The three elements presented here in Lesson 31 are retained in recommendations for post-Workbook practice given in the Manual for Teachers (see Section 16, “How Should the Teacher of God Spend His Day?”). Make a point of taking those longer, three to five minute periods morning and evening. This is the first time for them. You wouldn’t practice the piano by playing only half the scales, so don’t stint here, either. From this point on in the Workbook the practice is going to intensify; like me, I’m sure you’ll find it more difficult to maintain and to actually carry out. Remember: You are merely asked to apply the ideas as you are directed to do. You are not asked to judge them at all. You are asked only to use them. It is their use that will give them meaning to you, and will show you that they are true. (W-In.8:3–6, emphasis mine)

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LESSON 32 • FEBRUARY 1 “I have invented the world I see.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To teach you that you are not the effect of the world; it is the effect of you. Longer: Two times, morning and evening, for at least three to five minutes. As with yesterday’s lesson, repeat the idea a few times while looking around you slowly. Then close your eyes and apply it to the images that arise in your inner world. Remain detached by reminding yourself that both worlds are equally imaginary. Remarks: The counsel in 4:3 about when to practice is repeated in different forms several times in the Workbook. For a discussion, see “When Should You Take Your Morning Quiet Time?” Following the Workbook’s counsel in this regard will enhance the quality of your practice, so that, as with today’s lesson, you may find yourself wanting to go longer than five minutes. Frequent reminders: As often as possible. Repeat idea slowly while looking about either your outer or inner world. Response to temptation: Whenever a situation upsets you. Immediately respond with: “I have invented this situation as I see it.”

Commentary If I’m not the victim of the world, what is my relationship to it? I’ve invented it. If I’ve invented it, if I made it up, how can I possibly be its victim? Now, saying that I’ve invented the world is a pretty heavy statement. Saying that I can give it up as easily as I made it seems even more improbable. Yet that is what the practice of the Workbook is setting out to prove to us, not by rigorous logic but through experiences that demonstrate that it is true. That’s what miracles are. Miracles demonstrate that “the world you see outside you” and “the world you see in your mind” are “both…in your own imagination” (2:2–3).

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This lesson is simply introducing the idea, not trying to prove it. The Text discusses the same thought in several places (T-21.II.11:1; T-20.III.5:1–5), the most telling of them being: What if you recognized this world is an hallucination? What if you really understood you made it up? (T20.VIII.7:3–4) It isn’t a concept you can easily avoid if you study the Course; the Course insists on it. All that is really being asked here is that we open our minds to the idea that we have invented the world we see. It is a concept that can throw our minds into turmoil because it flies in the face of our fundamental beliefs about the world. The world has a few nice things about it, but also a lot of ugly junk. And being told I am responsible for it, I made it up, doesn’t sit easily with my mind. If it raises all kinds of questions in my mind, fine; let the questions bubble up. For today, for the practice periods, just apply the idea as given. It’s okay if part of your mind is kibitzing in the background saying, “This is nuts! I don’t really believe this.” The introduction warned us we might even actively resist the ideas. It said: Whatever your reactions to the ideas may be, use them. Nothing more than that is required. (W-In.9:4–5). It may be difficult to see at first, but we really only have two options. Either I made up the world, or I am its victim. Either I am the cause, or the effect. There aren’t any other choices; think about it. Either I am the dreamer, inventing the whole mess, or I am part of someone else’s dream (maybe God’s). If I am not the cause, I am at the world’s mercy. But if I am the cause—there is hope! I can change the dream, and perhaps, eventually, stop dreaming altogether.

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LESSON 33 • FEBRUARY 2 “There is another way of looking at the world.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To show you that you have the power to change your perception of both the outer and inner world, which are really the same. Longer: Two times, morning and evening, for five full minutes. Go back and forth from glancing around your outer world to closing your eyes and observing your inner world. While doing so repeat the idea unhurriedly. Regard both inner and outer worlds with equal casualness, uninvolvement, and detachment, to the point where you feel little transition in shifting between them. Frequent reminders: As often as you can. Repeat the idea. Try to be as detached as you were during the longer exercises. Response to temptation: The instant any situation disturbs you. When upset, apply the idea specifically, saying, “There is another way of looking at this.” Do so immediately, rather than waiting until you have tried to fix things on the outside. If your feelings do not clear up right away, don’t give up. Spend a minute or more repeating the sentence over and over, closing your eyes and concentrating on the words you are saying.

Commentary This lesson asserts the power of our minds to choose how we see the world. We can shift our perception of the world! That is not only a personally empowering concept, it is, quite literally, a world-changing realization. As we begin to examine our thoughts, we will be amazed at the number of situations in which the idea of “another way” of looking at it has simply never occurred to us. With some things, the idea that we could see them differently may actually be offensive. Without realizing it we may be saying, “My mind is already made up; don’t confuse me with facts.” That is why following the practice instructions with these lessons is so important. It isn’t just the longer five-minute times in the morning and evening: “The shorter exercise periods should be as frequent as possible” (3:1). The more often we bring this idea into our

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awareness during the day, the more we will become aware of areas of thought that we are protecting from change.

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LESSON 34 • FEBRUARY 3 “I could see peace instead of this.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To begin to experience the peace that characterizes true vision. Longer: Three times, morning, evening, and once in between, for five minutes. Close your eyes and search your mind for “upsetting” situations, personalities, and events (a typical triad in the Workbook). Repeat the idea slowly as you dispassionately watch the stream of upsets go by. After a couple of minutes, you may run out of upsets. That is all right. Just keep repeating the idea slowly until the five minutes are up. Response to temptation: Make a point of watching your mind today for upsets. Whenever you notice one, apply the idea to it. There are two forms of upset to watch out for, each requiring a slightly different form of practice: 1. If you are upset about a specific situation, apply the idea specifically: “I could see peace in this situation instead of what I now see in it.” 2. If your upset is not attached to anything in particular, but consists of a general mood of depression or worry, simply repeat the idea. If needed, take several minutes, repeating the idea until you feel relief. It will help if you add, “I can replace my feelings of depression, anxiety or worry [or my thoughts about this situation, personality or event] with peace.” Remarks: The final sentences of this lesson make a very important point, one to remember throughout the Workbook and afterwards. Repeating the idea just once may not do the trick. Your upset may go away only after you’ve spent several minutes repeating the idea. Repeating the same line again and again may sound like some kind of brainwashing, in which you just drum your mind into submission. However, I find this to be an exercise not in putting my mind to sleep, but in gradually illuminating it. If I have strong negative feelings, the first few repetitions of the idea may simply bounce off. But if I keep it up, each repetition allows the truth to enter in a little bit further, until I finally see the situation entirely differently. I urge you, therefore, to give this longer form of practice a real try today.

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Commentary The most helpful thought I ever heard in relation to this lesson was this: Notice that it says, “I could see peace,” and not “I should see peace.” It is far too easy to take this lesson as another reason for guilt. “Terrible me! I should see peace, but I am seeing this mess instead. What is wrong with me?” That is not how this lesson is meant to be applied. The opening paragraph contains such a wonderful summation of the Course’s philosophy of peace: Peace of mind is clearly an internal matter. It must begin with your own thoughts, and then extend outward. It is from your peace of mind that a peaceful perception of the world arises.(1:2–4) Peace is the motivation for doing this Course (see T-24.In.1:1). Our goal is what a later part of the Workbook refers to as “a mind at peace within itself” (W-pII.8.3:4). Peace must begin with our thoughts and extend outward from our minds. The focus is on the mind. We can replace our negative feelings and our unloving thoughts with peace. We have that power. We can choose peace if we want peace. Notice that the practice instructions for applying the lesson to “adverse emotions” (6:1) suggest that we repeat the idea “until you feel some sense of relief” (6:2). This practice is meant to have tangible effects. At times I have found that even in an extremely upsetting situation, repeating these words, “I could see peace instead of this,” has a decidedly calming effect on my mind, even if I cannot, in that very moment, see peace. In a very subtle way, it helps to convince my mind that the awful things I am seeing are not rock solid, immutable reality. I am seeing something other than peace, but if I really could see peace instead, then what I am seeing must not be as real as I think. Even that level of relief is worth the time it takes to practice. I used to believe that when upsetting situations occurred, I had to deal with the situation and change things around in order to be at peace. Through the practice of this lesson, I have learned that I can respond to any situation much more effectively if my mind is at peace first. I have discovered that I can bring my mind to peace without having first “solved” my problems. It really is possible to see peace instead of whatever seems to be upsetting me. And when I do, if response is required, I act calmly and without fear. Panic is not conducive to productive action; far better to seek peace first, then act.

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LESSON 35 • FEBRUARY 4 “My mind is part of God’s. I am very holy.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To show you who you really are. You see yourself according to the place you occupy in your environment. Since you think your environment is the physical world, your identity seems to be determined by the part you play in this world, by how you behave in earthly situations. Yet your true environment is not this world, it is God’s Mind. Your place there is what determines your real identity. If you truly believed you were part of that environment, you would instantly understand that you are holy. Longer: Three times, for five minutes. Repeat the idea, then close your eyes. Search your mind for descriptive terms you would apply to yourself, positive or negative (do not discriminate). Find them by picking up specific situations that occur to you and identifying the term you think applies to you in that situation. Say, “I see myself as [failing, helpless, charitable, etc.].” After each one, add, “But my mind is part of God’s. I am very holy.” If, after a while, no specific terms occur to you, don’t strain to dig up more. Relax and repeat the idea until another comes to mind. For complete instructions, see paragraphs 4–8. Frequent reminders: As often as possible. This practice can take one of two forms: 1. Notice the attribute you are applying to yourself in the current situation and plug it into the formula you used in the longer practice (“I see myself as...But my mind is...”). 2. If no attributes occur to you, just repeat the idea slowly with eyes closed.

Commentary The Text tells us that “you do not understand how lofty the Holy Spirit’s perception of you really is.” (T-9.VII.4:2). In the following section of the same chapter, it says: You did not establish your value and it needs no defense. Nothing can attack it nor prevail over it. It does not vary.

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It merely is. Ask the Holy Spirit what it is and He will tell you, but do not be afraid of His answer, because it comes from God. It is an exalted answer because of its Source, but the Source is true and so is Its answer. Listen and do not question what you hear, for God does not deceive. He would have you replace the ego’s belief in littleness with His Own exalted Answer to what you are, so that you can cease to question it and know it for what it is. (T-9.VIII.11:2–9) As the lesson points out, we do not normally think of ourselves in terms such as “lofty” and “exalted.” Notice, though, that the Course is saying this is true of us, not because of anything we have done, but because of our Source (3:2). What makes us what we are is not ourselves, but God. That is why the Course lays so much stress on the idea “I am as God created me.” Our little view of ourselves comes from our attempts to create ourselves; our true grandeur derives from the fact that we are God’s creations. Our unwillingness to recognize this connection with our Source is what keeps us locked in our smallness. We resist acknowledging God as our Source because it seems, to our egos, to put us in second place and to make us dependent. It does not make us dependent—we are dependent. That is not our shame; it is our glory. It is what establishes our grandeur. We have difficulty believing that “I am very holy.” Our refusal to believe it is why we are in this world, in this environment we think we want. We want it because it supports our image of ourselves as separate beings, independent of God. When we look at the world, and look at ourselves living in the world, the things we see do not support the idea of this lesson. And yet the eyes, ears, nose, and touch we use to gather evidence are part of the very image of this world. They exist within the constraints of the world’s image which we have constructed, very carefully, not to show us our union with God. Of course, they bring us very little evidence to contradict the ego’s image of us; we made them to function that way. One very strong emphasis of the Course is on looking directly at our darkness and confronting our fears. The more we look at fear, says the Course, the less we will see it. Simply bringing the darkness into the light dispels the darkness. Looking at our ego, and even the full extent of our hatred, is crucial to our growth, it tells us. This lesson reflects the other side, which is sometimes neglected when looking at the ego is overemphasized. The other side is reminding

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ourselves, firmly, of the truth of our exalted reality: “My mind is part of God’s. It is very holy.” In the Text we are told: Whenever you question your value, say: God Himself is incomplete without me. Remember this when the ego speaks, and you will not hear it. (T-9.VII.8:1–3) Reminding ourselves of the truth about us is another powerful technique the Course recommends for transcending our egos. The list of attributes and terms we use to describe ourselves given in the lesson is just a sample. As you practice the lesson today, try to notice how you think about yourself, and how different all of those thoughts, good and bad both, are from the lesson’s statement about you. I could add some of my own terms to the list: forgetful, disorganized, intelligent, clever, falling behind, skillful at what I do. What terms do you think of? You should have noticed that the lessons are now calling for three longer practice periods of five minutes each. We are getting into heavier practice. Some of us, if we have not meditated previously, may find it difficult to sit for five minutes with our eyes closed doing these exercises. I encourage you to do them anyway. Anything new is difficult at first, but becomes easier with practice; that is what the practice is for.

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LESSON 36 • FEBRUARY 5 “My holiness envelops everything I see.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To realize that the holiness of your mind must lead to holy sight. Longer: Four times (evenly spaced out), for three to five minutes. • Close your eyes and repeat the idea several times. • Open your eyes and look slowly and casually around, specifically applying idea to whatever your glance falls upon. Say, “My holiness envelops [this rug, that wall, that chair, etc.].” Several times during the practice period briefly close your eyes and repeat the idea. Then return to open-eyed practice. Frequent reminders: Frequency is important today. Repeat the idea with eyes closed, then with eyes open (looking around), then with eyes closed again. Remarks: Note that you are supposed to evenly space out the longer practice periods and do frequent shorter ones in between. The point is obviously to not leave any long gaps in which you are not practicing, so that your mind is protected all day long. Enclosing your day in this finely woven net, that has no big holes, is a major goal of the Workbook. Also, as always, repeat the idea very slowly, casually, and without strain. Doing it this way makes all the difference.

Commentary I’ve always had a fondness for this lesson, because the first time I did it I had a very real sense of how holiness was emanating from me and surrounding everything, first in my room, then my town, then the world, and finally the universe. For a very brief moment I felt like a Buddha, sitting and blessing the entire world (that’s tomorrow’s lesson, by the way). The result was so effective for me that often, when I am simply sitting in meditation and not practicing any particular lesson, I think of this one and allow that sense to steal over me again.

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Not everyone responds to every lesson, but everyone responds to some of the lessons. Notice the ones that seem particularly effective for you, and remember them. Lesson 194 in the Workbook speaks of building a “problem-solving repertoire” of things that we find helpful: If you can see the lesson for today as the deliverance it really is, you will not hesitate to give as much consistent effort as you can, to make it be a part of you. As it becomes a thought that rules your mind, a habit in your problem-solving repertoire, a way of quick reaction to temptation, you extend your learning to the world. (W-194.6:1–2) In yesterday’s lesson the focus was on the perceiver: “I am very holy.” Today the holiness extends to what is perceived. Because I am holy, my perception must also be holy. And I am perfectly holy because God created me that way. Holy means “sinless,” and you cannot be partly sinless any more than a woman can be “a little” pregnant. The logic here is quite simple and plain: If I am part of God I must be sinless, or part of God would be sinful. If I am without sin I must have holy perception as well. How I see myself affects how I see the world. My holiness envelops the world if I see myself as holy. My awfulness envelops the world if I see myself as awful. If I am willing to see the world enveloped in holiness, I can learn to see myself that way. I know, that sounds like I have it backwards; the order “should be” that I see myself holy first, and then the world. The thing of it is, what keeps me from seeing myself as holy is my unwillingness to see the world that way. From within the ego mindset, it seems as if seeing the world as holy will make me unholy by comparison. The ego always thinks in terms of comparison. The fact is that as I see the world, so I see myself, and as I see myself, so I see the world. The ego mind will insist it must be one way or the other because it operates on a presumption of separateness. The Holy Spirit presents it both ways at once because He operates on the presumption of unity. There is no separation between myself and what I see; there is only the one.

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LESSON 37 • FEBRUARY 6 “My holiness blesses the world.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To introduce you to your true function (this is the first lesson to deal with the topic of function). You are here to bless, and to make no demands. This blessing involves first acknowledging your own holiness, and then seeing others in its holy light. Try to see today’s practice periods in this way, as practice in the reason you are here. Longer: Four times, for three to five minutes. • Repeat the idea and, for a minute or so, look about you and apply it to the objects you see, saying, “My holiness blesses [this chair, that window, this body, etc.].” • Close your eyes and apply the idea to any person you think of, saying, “My holiness blesses you, [name].” • For the remainder you may continue with this second phase of practice, go back to the first, or alternate between them. • Conclude by repeating the idea with eyes closed and then once more with eyes open. Frequent reminders: As often as you can. This can take one of two forms: 1. Repeat the idea slowly. 2. Apply the idea silently to anyone you meet, using his or her name. Really try to do this. It takes real presence of mind to repeat the idea right when you meet up with someone, but it can be done. Or it can be done after the interaction is over. The Workbook will repeat this practice in several future lessons, which shows the importance it has. This practice has the power to transform an ordinary encounter into a holy encounter. Response to temptation: Whenever you have an adverse reaction to someone. Immediately apply the idea to him or her (“My holiness blesses you, [name]”). See this as a real act of blessing this person with your holiness. This will keep your holiness in your awareness, while your anger will blot it from your mind.

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Commentary There is a principle stated in Chapter 13 of the Text that applies to this lesson: “To perceive truly is to be aware of all reality through the awareness of your own” (T-13.VI.1:1). Or, in terms a bit closer to our lesson for today: Since you and your neighbor are equal members of one family, as you perceive both so you will do to both. You should look out from the perception of your own holiness to the holiness of others. (T-1.III.6:6–7) Unless we recognize our own holiness we will not see the holiness of all of God’s creations. What we perceive is, after all, merely the reflection of how we see ourselves. Conversely, how we perceive others shows us how we must be seeing ourselves. In this lesson we are told that we see “the first glimmerings of your true function in the world, or why you are here” (1:1). Our job is stated simply but with great profundity: “Your purpose is to see the world through your own holiness” (1:2). Have you ever met someone you would consider very holy? I have. The most remarkable thing about them is that they seem to see everyone as holy. When you are around them, you even feel holy yourself! They seem to be seeing something in you that normally you cannot see; their seeing it draws it out of you. And just exactly that is why we are in the world; just exactly that is what all of us are here to do. We are here to see the world through our own holiness, to draw out of everyone around us their native holiness, to perceive them in such a way that the power of our perception lifts them up out of selfdoubt and self-loathing into an awareness of their own magnificence. We have this power! As you share my unwillingness to accept error in yourself and others, you must join the great crusade to correct it; listen to my voice, learn to undo error and act to correct it. The power to work miracles belongs to you. (T-1.III.1:6–7) “Those who are released must join in releasing their brothers, for this is the plan of the Atonement” (T-1.III.3:3). This is the plan by which we, empowered by God’s Spirit within us, can save the world. We release one another by perceiving each other through our own holiness, creating a resonance within them as their own holy nature, long suppressed, responds to our perception of them.

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Thus are you and the world blessed together. No one loses; nothing is taken away from anyone; everyone gains through your holy vision. (1:3–4) “My holiness blesses the world”; that is what I am here for. I am here to bring blessing to the world, and the message I bring is: so are you. No one loses; everyone gains. What an incredible outlook this is! This undoes the entire idea of sacrifice because it is a message of total equality. We are here to acknowledge each other, and when we do we have achieved our glorious purpose. Any other way of looking at things winds up demanding sacrifice; somebody, somewhere, has to lose. But with the vision of Christ we can look out at all the world and proclaim, “They are all the same; all beautiful and equal in their holiness” (T-13.VIII.6:1). “Your holiness blesses him by asking nothing of him. Those who see themselves as whole make no demands” (2:6–7). Oh, that we might learn the lesson of asking nothing, making no demands! Have you ever, even perhaps if only for a brief time, been with someone who was so complete they made no demands on you? They had no need they were, overtly or covertly, asking you to fill. They loved you just as you were; they accepted you without expecting anything from you. Isn’t that what we all want in our relationships? Isn’t that what unconditional love is? Well, the way to have what you want is to give it away. This is what all of us are destined to do, and will do eventually, even if it seems beyond us now. Aware of your holiness and your own completion, you will stand and bless the world. Your holiness is the salvation of the world. It lets you teach the world that it is one with you, not by preaching to it, not by telling it anything, but merely by your quiet recognition that in your holiness are all things blessed along with you. (3:1–2)

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LESSON 38 • FEBRUARY 7 “There is nothing my holiness cannot do.”

Practice instructions Purpose: “To begin to instill in you a sense that you have dominion over all things because of what you are” (5:5). Longer: Four times, preferably for five full minutes. • Repeat the idea then close your eyes. • Search your mind for any suffering or difficulty, whether in your life or someone else’s. Do your best to treat these two as the same. For problems of your own, say, “In the situation involving _______ in which I see myself, there is nothing my holiness cannot do.” For problems of others, say, “In the situation involving _______ in which _______ sees himself, there is nothing my holiness cannot do.” • Periodically, feel free to add thoughts of your own that are related to today’s idea. Stay close to the idea; don’t go too far afield. These thoughts will serve to make that idea more real to you. This is the first occurrence of the important practice of letting related thoughts come, which you will receive more instruction in later. Frequent reminders: Frequent. Repeat the idea. Response to temptation: Whenever a specific problem—your own or someone else’s—presents itself or comes to mind, use the specific form from the longer practice period.

Commentary Toward the end of the lesson there is this informative line: “The purpose of today’s exercises is to begin to instill in you a sense that you have dominion over all things because of what you are” (5:5). In a much later lesson (190) the same idea is echoed: There is nothing in the world that has the power to make you ill or sad, or weak or frail. But it is you who have the power to dominate all things you see by merely recognizing what you are. (W-pI.190.5:5–6) Now, if you are like me, you probably don’t feel as though you have the power to dominate all things or that you are “unlimited in

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power.” You probably don’t feel as though the power of God is made manifest through your holiness, that because of what you are you can “remove all pain, can end all sorrow, and can solve all problems” (2:4). If you did feel that way, you’d probably suspect in some part of your mind that you were suffering from delusions of grandeur. That’s exactly why we need this kind of lesson. What we are, in reality, is so far above what we normally think we are that when we hear words like this lesson there is a part of us that whispers, “This is getting a little freaky here.” We have no idea of the power of our minds, which were created by God and given the same creative power as His. When we get hints of how powerful we are, it scares us, and we try to forget about it. What we really are is “beyond every restriction of time, space, distance and limits of any kind” (1:2). We really do have the power to solve all problems, our own and anyone else’s. If practicing today’s lesson simply begins to instill this sense in us, it has been successful. When I face a situation that is troubling me and repeat, “In this situation, there is nothing that my holiness cannot do,” even if ninety percent of my mind is protesting against the idea, something shifts within me. A little faith is generated. Maybe the percentage shifts from ten percent belief to eleven percent belief. And when I do it again, twelve percent. We’ve all read stories of people who overcame unbelievable odds just because they believed in themselves; that only hints at what the Course is talking about, but it illustrates the principle. The Course is talking about the power of belief, but much more as well; it is talking about the power of what we honest-to-God are. And it is talking about the power of our holiness, not just belief. You and I are made out of God-stuff. When we actually get that, we can change the world. True learning is constant, and so vital in its power that a Son of God can recognize his power in one instant and change the world in the next. (T-7.V.7:5)

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LESSON 39 • FEBRUARY 8 “My holiness is my salvation.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To get you in touch with your holiness, which is your salvation from the hell of guilt. Longer: Four times (more are encouraged), for five full minutes (longer is encouraged). • Repeat the idea. • Close your eyes and slowly search your mind for unloving thoughts, thoughts with any kind of negative feeling attached to them. This includes specific situations, events, or personalities associated with angry, worried, or depressed thoughts. Make no exceptions and try to treat each one the same. With each, say, “My unloving thoughts about ______ are keeping me in hell. My holiness is my salvation.” Your unloving thoughts keep you in hell by producing guilt. Your holiness saves you by showing you that your true nature is untouched by sin and guilt, and it proves this by blessing everything it sees. • Because sustained concentration is hard for you at this stage, you may want to intersperse this practice with several periods of just repeating the the idea slowly, or relaxing and not thinking of anything. You can also introduce variety, which seems to mean varying the wording of the idea. Make sure, however, that you retain its central meaning: that your holiness is your salvation. • Conclude by repeating the idea and asking yourself, “If guilt is hell, what is its opposite?” (For the answer, see 4:2). Frequent reminders: At least three or four per hour. Ask yourself, “If guilt is hell, what is its opposite?” Or repeat the idea. Preferably both. Response to temptation: Whenever you are tempted to give in to unloving thoughts. Apply the idea specifically: “My holiness is my salvation from this.”

Commentary The opposite of hell is salvation; the opposite of guilt is holiness. If guilt is hell, then holiness must be salvation. The question is: Do I

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believe that guilt is hell? Or do I, perhaps, feel that guilt serves a useful function in my life? The Course teaches that guilt is at the root of all our problems, and yet at the beginning we don’t even suspect guilt as the cause. We lay the problems at the feet of many different things, but rarely at the feet of guilt. “Of one thing you were sure: Of all the many causes you perceived as bringing pain and suffering to you, your guilt was not among them” (T-27.VII.7:4). Guilt is hell. This is part of what the Course is trying to teach us—a large part. As long as you believe that guilt is justified in any way, in anyone, whatever he may do, you will not look within, where you would always find Atonement. The end of guilt will never come as long as you believe there is a reason for it. For you must learn that guilt is always totally insane, and has no reason. (T-13.X.6:1–3) All salvation is escape from guilt.

(T-14.III.13:4)

Guilt is interference, not salvation, and serves no useful function at all. (T-14.III.1:4) Perhaps we may object. Perhaps it seems that guilt is necessary to keep us from wrongdoing; but that presumes something within us that is inherently evil and perverse, something that will always do wrong unless it is kept caged, or punished when it misbehaves. Guilt serves no useful function; guilt is hell. Guilt is what we need to escape from. Guilt does not keep us from wrongdoing; it keeps us locked into it. It is guilt that has driven us insane. As this lesson says, if we wholly believed that guilt is hell, we would immediately understand the entire Text and have no need for a Workbook. We would have salvation, full and complete, for salvation is escape from guilt. This is not a part of the Course’s message; it is the whole of it. This is why my holiness is my salvation; holiness is freedom from guilt. Notice the emphasis in practice on “unloving thoughts” (6:2; 7:1; 8:3). Unloving thoughts are guilty thoughts; they both stem from guilt and produce more of it. Holiness is lovingness. If my thoughts are unloving, I will be fearful and guilty; my holiness is my salvation from guilt. As we realize that our unloving thoughts are keeping us in hell, we will let them go. Today’s practice instructions are fiercely demanding: a minimum of four sessions of five full minutes each, with “longer and more

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frequent practice sessions…encouraged” (5:1). Then there are shorter applications, “which should be made some three or four times an hour and more if possible” (11:1). Plus there are responses to temptation. Today’s idea must be very important! It must be very hard for our minds to absorb, so that we need to frequently immerse our minds in this thought.

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LESSON 40 • FEBRUARY 9 “I am blessed as a Son of God.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To put you in touch with the happy things that you are entitled to as God’s Son. Frequent reminders: Every ten minutes is highly desirable. Close your eyes (if feasible), repeat the idea, and apply to yourself several attributes you associate with being a Son of God. For example: “I am blessed as a Son of God. I am happy, peaceful, loving and contented.” Remarks: You can see that he really means us to do this practice today. He urges us to do our best to keep to the schedule (1:3). He reminds us that the practice takes “little time and no effort” (3:1). And he has three provisions for when we do not or cannot do the practice as instructed: 1. When you notice that you have forgotten to practice, even for a long stretch, rather than feeling guilty and giving up, simply get back to your practicing right away. 2. If it is not feasible to close your eyes—which will often be the case—don’t let that keep you from practicing. Just practice with eyes open. 3. If there is not enough time to do the exercise as suggested, simply repeat the idea. That takes about four seconds.

Commentary There is no escaping the importance the Workbook attaches to actually trying to practice as instructed. In this lesson, whose practice is in one sense a relaxation from yesterday’s and in another sense an intensification, you cannot read these words and think that the author believes that it does not matter whether or not we follow the instructions: No long practice periods are required today, but very frequent short ones are necessary. Once every ten minutes would be highly desirable, and you are urged to attempt this schedule and to adhere to it whenever possible. If you forget, try again. If there are long

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interruptions, try again. Whenever you remember, try again. (1:2–6, my emphasis). Attempt…try…try…try. The more often we can repeat the lesson, the more impact it will have on our mind. How can you have a “course in mind training” (T-1.VII.4:1) without some kind of mental discipline? You can’t; it’s that simple. At the same time notice that there is no “guilting” going on here. The author anticipates our indiscipline and expects (or allows for) our forgetting, and for “long interruptions” (1:5). He knows we lack discipline; that is exactly why the practice is so “necessary.” But he does not judge us for it. He says, simply, “If you forget, try again.” Don’t let forgetting, even for long periods of the day, be an excuse to give up for the rest of the day. Every time we remember, we add a link to the “chain of forgiveness which, when completed, is the Atonement” (T-1.I.25:1). He goes to the trouble of pointing out that just because you can’t get alone and close your eyes, that is no excuse for not practicing. “You can practice quite well under any circumstances, if you really want to” (2:4). The practice for today is, very simply, making positive affirmations as often as possible. “I am blessed as a Son of God. I am calm, quiet, assured and confident” (3:7–8). This might take ten or fifteen seconds, perhaps a little longer to think of a new list of attributes that you might associate with being a Son of God: “I am serene, capable and unshakable.” “I am joyful, radiant, and full of love.” Can any of us really consider it a trial to engage in practice like this? Our egos do, and they will resist. I am no longer startled, but still astonished, at the variety of ways my ego finds to distract me and keep me from practicing my own happiness—for that is all we are doing here. Observing my ego’s constant opposition to my happiness is one thing that has convinced me of the truth of that line in the Text: “The ego does not love you” (T-9.VII.3:5). Because of what I am, an extension of God, I am entitled to happiness. The ego has to resist that idea because its existence depends upon my believing that I have separated myself from God; therefore the ego wants me to be unhappy. It wants me to believe that I do not deserve to be happy. Maybe it doesn’t want me totally miserable—that might prompt me to reconsider everything. Just “a mild river of misery,” as Marianne Williamson puts it. Just a vein of sadness and impermanence running through even my best times. Just

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enough to keep me from listening to The Other Guy Who talks about my union with God. And definitely not happy. Happy is dangerous to the ego. Happy says separation isn’t true. And it isn’t!

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LESSON 41 • FEBRUARY 10 “God goes with me wherever I go.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To get in touch with God’s Presence deep within you, so that you experience the fact that He goes with you wherever you go. This is the real cure for all human ills, which are merely symptoms of our illusory separation from God. Longer: One time, for three to five minutes, as soon as possible after rising. • Close your eyes, repeat the idea very slowly. • Then let your mind go blank and focus all your attention on sinking down and inward. Sink past the cloud of insane thoughts on the surface of your mind and toward the Presence of God at the quiet center of your mind. “Try to enter very deeply into your own mind” (6:6). Repeat the idea occasionally if it helps, but spend most of your time gently willing yourself to sink toward the core of your mind, where all is still. Hold in mind the confidence that you can make it, for reaching this place is more natural than anything in this world. When thoughts arise, simply slip past them on your way inward. It will help dispel them if you repeat the idea. Remarks: This is the Workbook’s first meditation exercise. It is labeled “our first real attempt” (5:3) to reach the light within. As this quote suggests, this practice is extremely important in the Workbook. Paragraph 8 clearly signals that we will be engaging in “this kind of practice” (8:6) more, receiving more instruction in it, and growing in it, until we reach the point where “it is always successful” (8:5). Frequent reminders: Often. Repeat the idea according to the instructions in paragraph 9. To get a sense for that, I suggest that you repeat it right now following the instructions below, all of which are drawn from paragraph 9: • Repeat “it very slowly, preferably with eyes closed.” • Repeat it again and “think of what you are saying; what the words mean.” • Repeat the words again and “concentrate on the holiness that they imply about you.” If He goes with you and He is holy, then you are holy.

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• Repeat them again, concentrating “on the unfailing companionship that is yours.” • Repeat them again, concentrating “on the complete protection that surrounds you.” Response to temptation: Whenever you have fear thoughts. Remember the idea. If you really connect with its meaning, you will be able to laugh at the fears that seemed so heavy an instant before.

Commentary Innumerable problems seem to have arisen from our perception of ourselves as separate from God. A sense of loneliness and abandonment, depression, anxiety, worry, helplessness, misery, suffering, and intense fear of loss all stem from this root problem. Most of our lives are spent, if we look at things objectively, with various ways of trying to circumvent and overcome these problems. But the one thing [we] do not do is to question the reality of the problem. Yet its effects cannot be cured because the problem is not real. (2:2–3) A spiritual teacher, Adi Da, once wrote a book subtitled The Imaginary Disease That Religion Seeks to Cure. That is what separation is: an imaginary disease. How can you cure a disease that does not really exist? The answer is obvious; you cannot. There is no cure because there is no disease. This is why all our attempts to “cure” ourselves do not work. We cannot find the way “back” to God because He has never left us; God goes with us wherever we go. All of our strife and drama is just foolishness, “despite the serious and tragic forms it may take” (2:5). Deep within you is everything that is perfect, ready to radiate through you and out into the world. It will cure all sorrow and pain and fear and loss because it will heal the mind that thought these things were real, and suffered out of its allegiance to them. (3:1–2) We carry the “cure” for our disease deep within us. This cure heals, not by overcoming the “illness” but by healing our belief in the reality of the illness. God is always with us. How could we ever, in any way, ever be separate from the Infinite? How could we ever be apart from All That Is? The very idea is insane and impossible.

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We understand that you do not believe all this. How could you, when the truth is hidden deep within, under a heavy cloud of insane thoughts, dense and obscuring, yet representing all you see? Today we will make our first real attempt to get past this dark and heavy cloud, and to go through it to the light beyond. (5:1–3) How reassuring to have our Teacher tell us that he understands we do not believe this as yet. Oh, perhaps we hold an intellectual belief in God’s omnipresence, but we do not believe it to the core, in a way that banishes all our fear, sorrow, pain and loss. That is the purpose of this lesson: to get past “this dark and heavy cloud” and to reach the light. This lesson is the Course’s first introduction to the practice of what we might call traditional meditation. While the Course does not make such meditation a primary focus, it definitely accords it a place of great importance. Meditation in the Course consists of sitting with eyes closed and making “no effort to think of anything” (6:4), but attempting to enter deeply into our own mind, to sink down and inward while trying to keep the mind “clear of any thoughts that might divert your attention” (6:6). The purpose, as has been stated, is to become aware of the light within ourselves. Or, in more traditional terms, to experience a sense of God’s presence with us. We are attempting to reach God today. This meditation exercise, says the lesson, can achieve startling results the very first time you try it. That may not happen for you the first time, but “sooner or later it is always successful” (8:5). That certainly implies that we are expected to repeat the exercise, and to expect something as a result. Clearly, if this idea of God’s presence is meant to banish our loneliness, we can expect to develop a very clear and tangible sense of Someone Who is always with us, in every moment. When we begin to develop this sense we may be tempted to think it is our imagination. This is no imagination! It is the absence of this Presence that is imaginary. “You can indeed afford to laugh at fear thoughts, remembering that God goes with you wherever you go” (10:1).

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LESSON 42 • FEBRUARY 11 “God is my Strength. Vision is His gift.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To realize that vision comes not from you but from the strength of God in you, and that therefore you can receive it under any circumstance and cannot fail to find it eventually. Longer: Two times, for three to five minutes, (early) morning and (late) evening. • Repeat the idea slowly, looking about you. Close your eyes and repeat it even slower. • Then step back and let only thoughts related to the idea come to mind. Do not strain or actively try to think them up. “Try merely to step back and let the thoughts come” (6:2). I find it helpful to repeat the idea and watch for the germ of a related thought to spark in my mind somewhere during that repetition. Then I put words to that germ. • If your mind wanders, repeat the idea and try again. If related thoughts stop coming, repeat the idea with eyes open and eyes closed as at the beginning. If no related thoughts come at all, just repeat this beginning phase over and over. Remarks: This is our first lengthy instruction in the practice of letting related thoughts come (which was introduced in Lesson 38). Over time, the Workbook will try to make this practice a habitual part of our overall repertoire. Frequent reminders: The more often the better. Repeating this idea, which consists of two parts, will begin to show you that all the parts of the Course come together into a unified whole. It will also remind you that the Course’s goal—vision—is a genuine priority for you.

Commentary Question: Why can we not fail in our efforts to achieve the goal of this course? Answer: Because God wills us to achieve it. If that answer sounds somewhat demeaning to you, don’t be surprised at having such a reaction. With our minds permeated by ego thinking, it can seem personally insulting to be told that the guarantee

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of our success is that “God wants it that way,” as if we don’t have any choice in the matter. But the fact is, we don’t. As the introduction to the Text puts it: It is a required course. Only the time you take it is voluntary. Free will does not mean that you can establish the curriculum. It means only that you can elect what you want to take at a given time. (T-In.1:2–5) The curriculum is learning who we are, and we don’t have any say in establishing that; we are what God created, and we cannot change that. The only choice is how long it takes us to accept the fact of what we are, instead of trying to be something we are not. The Text talks about how separation took root in our minds when we refused to accept ourselves as creations of God and wanted to create ourselves. We’re still fighting that same silly battle. It still seems insulting to be told that the outcome is inevitable; we are what God created and can’t be anything else, no matter how much we might wish for it. It is God’s strength and not ours that gives us our power. We can’t give ourselves vision, but neither can we forever refuse His gift to us. Even if we resist, eventually we will capitulate. And if we cooperate, our success is guaranteed. Werner Erhard, the founder of Erhard Seminars Training (est), once said that it is easier to ride the horse in the direction in which it is going. That is what the Course is asking us to do; to join our will to God’s, and to recognize that we really do want exactly what He wants to give us, and has given already. “What He gives is truly given” (2:1). If we can accept that our will and God’s are the same, we can enter into spiritual life as a sure thing. We can say, “Vision must be possible. God gives truly” (4:5–6). Or “God’s gifts to me must be mine, because He gave them to me” (4:7). We can walk through life with a calm assurance. “Those who are certain of the outcome can afford to wait, and wait without anxiety” (M-4.VIII.1:1). There is an idea that gets tossed into the middle of this lesson, seemingly unrelated, although it is closely related. “Your passage through time and space is not at random. You cannot but be in the right place at the right time” (2:3–4). The more you go on with this path (and similar ones) the more you know this is absolutely true. There are no random events; everything has a purpose. And you cannot miss! You can’t screw it up. Oh, you can make mistakes; the

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Course is quite clear about that. It tells us: “Son of God, you have not sinned, but you have been much mistaken” (T-10.V.6:1). But even our mistakes can be used by the Holy Spirit for our benefit: “The Son of God can make no choice the Holy Spirit cannot employ on his behalf” (T-25.VI.7:5). Even if you make the “wrong” choice, nothing has really happened; no permanent damage has been done. “Nothing is ever lost but time, which in the end is meaningless” (T-26.V.2:1). The Holy Spirit can take whatever you give Him and turn it to your good. So you can’t help being in the right place at the right time; you can just relax in life and enjoy the show, instead of being anxious about it all. Why is this so? Because of the strength of God, and His gifts. Your reaching the goal is His Will, and what God wants, God gets. After all, He’s God. One further comment: In the instructions for practice you are asked to let thoughts occur in relation to today’s idea; this kind of rehearsing of related thoughts is another type of meditation that is quite common in the Workbook. Then it says, “You may, in fact, be astonished at the amount of course-related understanding some of your thoughts contain” (5:2). You may, however, instead be very puzzled over what the heck this means! The first time I tried this exercise my mind was virtually blank. Remember that the Workbook often assumes that you have studied—not just read, but studied—the Text before you began these exercises. It isn’t a requirement, but it is assumed to be the general case. For anyone who has done that, related thoughts will indeed come easily, or if you are on a repeat pass through the Workbook, same thing. If, after trying for a minute or two to find related thoughts, you find that they do not come easily, take the advice given a little further on in the lesson: “If you find this difficult, it is better to spend the practice period alternating between slow repetitions of the idea with the eyes open, then with eyes closed, than it is to strain to find suitable thoughts” (6:3). The presence of this kind of instruction shows that the lessons can accommodate people who haven’t already studied the Text in depth.

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LESSON 43 • FEBRUARY 12 “God is my Source. I cannot see apart from Him.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To remember your function. Longer: Three times, for five minutes each; morning (early as possible), evening (late as possible), and in between (when readiness and circumstances permit). • First phase: Repeat the idea, then glance around you, applying it specifically and indiscriminately to whatever you see. Four to five subjects will be enough. • Second phase: Close your eyes, repeat the idea, and let related thoughts come to you. Their purpose is to enrich the idea “in your own personal way” (5:2). They don’t need to be restatements of it, or even obviously related to it, but they can’t contradict it. If your mind is wandering or you begin to draw a blank, repeat the first phase of the exercise and then attempt the second phase again. Don’t let the practice period become a mind wandering session, so be determined do this as many times as you need to. Frequent reminders: You have a choice of three forms: 1. When you are with someone, whether friend or “stranger,” tell him silently, “God is my Source. I cannot see you apart from Him.” 2. Apply the idea to a situation or event, saying, “God is my Source. I cannot see this apart from Him.” 3. If no subjects present themselves, merely repeat the idea. Remarks: Try to allow no long gaps in remembering the idea. This is an important training goal for the Workbook. The same thing was urged in Lesson 36 (2:2). Also, do your best to remember to apply the idea to people you encounter. It takes real presence of mind to do this, but it can be done, and it will change the quality of the encounter. Response to temptation: Whenever you get distressed about an event or situation. Apply the idea specifically: “God is my Source. I cannot see this apart from Him.”

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Commentary All of what we call “seeing” is perception; it is not knowledge. Perception does not show us the truth; at best it shows us a clear symbol of truth. “Knowledge” in the Course is something that belongs to the realm of perfection, of Heaven; it is not possible to have knowledge and to be in this world, because this world is not true. The entire aim of the Course is to move us from false perception to true perception; when our perception has been cleaned up, we will be ready for the transfer to knowledge. Without the Holy Spirit, perception would have remained false. But because God has placed this link with Himself in all of our minds, perception can be purified so that it will lead us to knowledge. In Heaven or in God, there is no such thing as perception, only knowledge. Perception requires two, a perceiver and the perceived; that is duality and does not exist in truth. Yet “in salvation,” our experience in this world, “perception has a mighty purpose” (2:3). Although we made perception for “an unholy purpose” (2:4), to make illusions that we think are real, the Holy Spirit can use it to restore our holiness to our awareness. Remember Lesson 1? “Nothing I see means anything.” That is because “perception has no meaning” (2:5). All of perception is essentially meaningless, “yet does the Holy Spirit give it a meaning very close to God’s” (2:6). Rather than trying to understand what we see, we need to step back and let the Holy Spirit write His meaning on it all. Seen with Him, everything reveals God to us. Without God, we think we see, but we really see nothing. We see nothing that looks like something and we attach our meanings to it all, meanings which deceive us. “I cannot see apart from Him.” I may think I see, but what I seem to see is not seeing; it is hallucinating. With God, I can see truly. With God, I can perceive a clear reflection of truth in everything I look upon. It is that perception of truth that is the means by which I can forgive my brother. If I ask, I will see it. So I cannot see apart from God. But that’s a no-brainer, because I cannot be apart from God, so the truth is I can’t do anything apart from Him. It’s like saying, “My hand can’t do anything without my body.” Of course not; my hand is not separate from my body. “Whatever you do you do in Him” (3:2). To achieve true vision I do not need to become part of God or to join with Him, as if I were making a transition of some kind from a separated condition to a unified condition. No, all I really need to do is acknowledge or recognize that I am already one with Him. As I

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accept that reality about myself, vision is already mine. It is inherent in my natural condition. What I see when I think I am apart from God must not be sight, because being apart from God is illusion, so the “sight” must also be illusion. “I cannot see this desk apart from Him” (4:8). Once again we are led into a period in which we let relevant related thoughts arise in our minds. The Course is clearly encouraging us to put its ideas into our own words, and to extend them and embellish them for our own personal use. Sometimes, the “altered” form of the lesson will prove more effective for your practice than the original version. We should feel free to do this kind of personalizing in all of the Workbook lessons. It is a tool we are meant to use to make the lessons more personally meaningful.

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LESSON 44 • FEBRUARY 13 “God is the light in which I see.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To contact the light within that allows you to see with true vision. Longer: At least three times, for three to five minutes (longer is highly recommended if not a strain). • Repeat the idea, then close your eyes slowly, repeating the idea several more times. • The rest of the practice involves a single motion of sinking into your mind. I find it helpful to think of this motion as having three aspects: 1. Sink down and inward, past your surface thoughts and toward the light of God deep within your mind. As you do this, “try to think of light, formless and without limit” (10:2). If your meditation is successful, you will experience a feeling of approaching or even entering light. 2. Do not allow yourself to get sidetracked. This is crucial. As you pass by your thoughts, observe them dispassionately, “and slip quietly by them” (7:5). They have no power to hold you back. If resistance arises, repeat the idea. If actual fear arises, open your eyes briefly and repeat the idea. Then return to the exercise. 3. Hold in mind a heightened attitude about what you are doing, a sense that it has great importance, untold value, and is very holy. This attitude is more important than details of technique. Remarks: This is the Workbook’s second meditation exercise (the first was Lesson 41), and you can see the immense importance given it here, especially in paragraphs 3–5. We may resist this practice, because it requires discipline our minds don’t yet have, and because it means leaving our ego’s thoughts and beliefs behind. But these are the very reasons why this practice is so important. Frequent reminders: Often—be determined not to forget. Repeat the idea with eyes open or closed, as seems best.

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Commentary The first paragraph presents a rather amazing picture of what this world we see is. It says we made darkness, and then we thought we could see in it. What we call “seeing,” then, is simply imagining that we can see in darkness. “In order to see, you must recognize that light is within, not without. You do not see outside yourself, nor is the equipment for seeing outside you” (2:1–2). What we call light is not true light. Light is not outside of us; it is within us. It is not physical, it is spiritual. And we do not see truly with external eyes but with inner vision. The light for true seeing is within us, and the goal of today’s lesson is to reach that light. Once again the Workbook takes us into an experiential exercise of meditation. This kind of meditation, and the experience it seeks to produce, is clearly a major component of Course practice. The emphasis placed on it is nothing short of amazing. We are told that it is a form of exercise that “we will utilize increasingly” (3:2). It “represents a major goal of mind training” (3:3). Longer times are “highly recommended” (4:2). We are urged to persist despite “strong resistance” (5:2). It represents a “release from hell” (5:5). We are reminded of “the importance of what you are doing; its inestimable value to you” (8:1), and that “you are attempting something very holy” (8:1). The lesson closes with these words: “But do not forget. Above all, be determined not to forget today” (11:2–3). There is no mistaking the awareness that Jesus, as the author, considers this kind of meditation practice exceptionally important. Why is that? There are a few indications within the lesson. In the third paragraph, the lesson notes that this kind of practice—sitting quietly, sinking inward, slipping by our thoughts without being involved in them—“is a particularly difficult form for the undisciplined mind” (3:3). It is difficult because it “requires precisely what the untrained mind lacks” (3:4). It is the very difficulty that proves our need of it, just as getting out of breath when you jog for fifty yards proves that you need aerobic exercise. “This training must be accomplished if you are to see” (3:5). In other words, meditation practice is a requirement for developing inner vision. How can we see with inner vision if we do not know how to find the inner light? These are training exercises. We will find it difficult at first. We will encounter resistance. The exercise is clearly labeled an “attempt” (3:1) at reaching the light, indicating an understanding that we may

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not do so all at once, any more than we will run a marathon the first few times we begin jogging. It is a goal of our mind training to reach the light, and we will likely not reach the goal right away, although it is “the most natural and easy [form of practice] for the trained mind” (4:3). We are in the process of acquiring the training that will make reaching the light seem easy and natural, but it is not that way now because our minds are still undisciplined. We are “no longer wholly untrained” (5:1). If we have been following the instructions we have had forty-three days of practice leading up to this day. Still, we may “encounter strong resistance” (5:2). To the ego what we are doing seems like “loss of identity and a descent into hell” (5:6). But we are attempting to reach God, Who is the light in which we can see; that is not a loss. It is escape from darkness. When we begin to build up a history of experiences with the light, of feeling relaxation, sensing our approach to it, and even being aware of entering into it, we will know what the Course is talking about. And we will crave more. There is nothing like the experience. These holy instants are foretastes of Heaven, glimpses of reality. They will motivate us in our journey like nothing else. There is a sense of reality so real that what seemed real before pales into insubstantial shadows by comparison. When we have entered the light we will recognize that we have been in darkness, thinking it was light. That is what gives these experiences their “inestimable value.”

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LESSON 45 • FEBRUARY 14 “God is the Mind with which I think.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To experience your real thoughts, which you think with the Mind of God. Longer: Three times, for five minutes. • Repeat the idea as you close your eyes. Then add four to five related thoughts (remember the instruction in letting related thoughts come that you received in Lessons 42 and 43). • Then repeat the idea again and say, “My real thoughts are in my mind. I would like to find them.” • Then employ the same meditation technique you were taught in Lessons 41 and 44. Again, it is helpful to think of it as having three aspects: 1. Sink down through the obscuring layer of your senseless, unreal thoughts; reach past that to the eternal, limitless thoughts you think with God. 2. When your mind wanders, draw it back. It will help if you repeat the idea. 3. Above all, hold a certain attitude in mind. Confidence: Don’t let your worldly thoughts tell you that you can’t make it. You can’t fail, because God wants you to make it. Desire: Reaching this place in you is your true heart’s desire. Holiness: Approach it as you would a holy altar in which God and His Son think in perfect unison. “Remind yourself that this is no idle game, but an exercise in holiness” (8:7). Frequent reminders: Ideally, spend one to two minutes. Repeat the idea. Then step aside from your usual unholy thoughts and spend some time reflecting on the holiness of your mind. Think about how holy it must be if it thinks with the Mind of God.

Commentary The lessons are trying, in a way, to cause extreme disorientation in us. Our real thoughts “are nothing that you think you think, just as nothing that you think you see is related to vision in any way” (1:2). If my thoughts aren’t real and what I see isn’t real, what do I have to hold on to? Not much at all. This can seem quite frightening, almost what it might be like if I were one of those characters in a suspense

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thriller who is being attacked by someone trying to drive them insane, causing them to believe that they are hallucinating and imagining things that are not there. Actually, although the attempt to break our mental orientation is similar, the Course’s intent is just the reverse. It is trying to drive us sane, not insane. We already are insane. We are hallucinating and imagining things that are not there, and the Course is trying to break our obsessive belief in their reality. Underneath the protective layer of delusion we have laid over reality is a wholly sane mind thinking wholly sane thoughts and seeing only truth. Our real thoughts are thoughts we think with the Mind of God, sharing them with Him. Thoughts do not leave the mind, so they must still be there. Our thoughts are God’s thoughts, and God’s thoughts are eternal. If these thoughts are there we can find them. We can push our feet down through the mushy ooze of our thoughts and find solid bedrock. We may be almost totally out of touch with these original, eternal thoughts, thoughts completely in accord with the Mind of God, but God would have us find them. Therefore we must be capable of finding them. Yesterday we were seeking the light within ourselves, a very abstract concept. Today we are seeking our own real thoughts. That brings the abstract a little closer to home; not just “the light” but my own thoughts, something that is part of me and representative of my nature. What would a thought be like that was in perfect harmony with the Mind of God? That is what we are trying to find and experience today. And if we are honest, we will have to admit that the thoughts of which we are mostly aware are not in that league at all. Our thoughts are too riddled with fear, too uncertain, too defensive, too anxious or frantic, and above all too changeable to qualify as thoughts we share with God. A thought we share with God must be one of complete harmony, absolute peace, utter certainty, total benevolence, and perfect stability. We are seeking to locate such a thought-center in our minds. We are seeking to find thoughts of this nature within ourselves. Once more we practice the quiet sinking down, going past all the unreal thoughts that cover the truth in our minds, and reaching to the eternal that is within us. This is a holy exercise, and one we should take quite seriously, although not somberly, for it is a joyous exercise. Within me there is a place that never changes, a place that is always at peace, always brilliant with love’s shining. And today, O God yes today, I want to find that place! Today I want to touch that solid

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foundation at the core of my being and know its stability. Today I want to find my Self.

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LESSON 46 • FEBRUARY 15 “God is the Love in which I forgive.”

Practice instructions Longer: At least three times, for five full minutes. • Repeat the idea as you close your eyes. Search your mind for those you have not completely forgiven. This shouldn’t be hard —any lack of total love is a sign of unforgiveness. To each one, say, “God is the Love in which I forgive you, [name].” This will “put you in a position to forgive yourself” (5:1). • After a minute or two of this, tell yourself, “God is the Love in which I forgive myself.” Then spend the rest of the time letting your mind come up with thoughts related to this idea. They need not be a restatement of it, but don’t get too far away from it, either. Draw upon the instruction you have received in letting related thoughts come. • Conclude by repeating the original idea. Frequent reminders: As many as possible. Repeat the idea, in original form or in the form of a related thought. Response to temptation: When you have a negative reaction to anyone, “present or not” (7:3). Tell that person silently, “God is the Love in which I forgive you.”

Commentary The whole of the Course’s teaching on the Atonement principle is contained in the first sentence: “God does not forgive because He has never condemned.” Over and over the Course emphasizes that God is not a God of vengeance, that God is not angry with us, that He knows nothing of punishment. God does not condemn; He never has. His heart remains eternally open to us all. To me specifically. In this world of illusions, where mutual condemnation has become a way of life (or death?), forgiveness is necessary—not God’s forgiveness, but our own. Forgiveness is the way we release ourselves from illusions. All condemnation is self-condemnation; the guilt we see in others is our own reflecting back at us, and as we release others from our condemnation, we are released. “As you condemn only yourself, so do you forgive only yourself” (1:5).

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As later lessons will make clear, our whole purpose in this world is to bring forgiveness to it, to release it from the burden of guilt that we have laid upon it. This is what returns our mind to the awareness of God. We find God by liberating those around us, lifting our judgment from them, and acknowledging them as worthy creations of God along with ourselves. “God…is approached through the appreciation of His Son” (T-11.IV.7:2). Lifting the chains of judgment from everyone that I know puts me in a position to forgive myself (5:1). It brings a warm feeling inside when I can say, “God is the Love in which I forgive myself” (5:3). I may not even be aware of any guilt consciously, but when I bless myself with forgiveness, something melts, and I know that the forgiveness was needed. There is a subliminal self-criticism that is nearly always going on; and when I break into it, picturing the Love of God pouring over me like molten gold, knowing and accepting (maybe just in that moment) His total acceptance of me, I rarely escape the moment without tears of gratitude.

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LESSON 47 • FEBRUARY 16 “God is the strength in which I trust.”

Practice instructions Purpose: “To reach past your own weakness to the Source of real strength” (4:1), so that you gain confidence in the face of all problems and decisions. Longer: Four times (more are urged), for five minutes (longer are urged). • Close your eyes and repeat the idea. • Search your mind for situations about which you have fear. Release each one by saying, “God is the strength in which I trust.” Do this for a minute or two. • The remainder is another exercise in meditation. Sink down in your mind, beneath all your worried thoughts, which are based on your sense of inadequacy. Reach down below these to the place in you where nothing is beyond your strength, because the strength of God lives in you. You might imagine you are sinking down beneath the choppy waters on the surface to the peaceful depths where all is still. “You will recognize that you have reached [this place] if you feel a sense of deep peace, however briefly” (7:2). Remember (as previously instructed) to draw your mind back from wandering as often as needed, and to hold in mind an attitude of confidence and desire. Frequent reminders: Often. Repeat the idea. Response to temptation: When any disturbance arises. Repeat the idea, remembering you are entitled to peace because you are trusting in God’s strength, not your own.

Commentary It is reported in the Gospel of John that Jesus said, “The Son can do nothing of himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing….I can do nothing on my own initiative, as I hear, I judge” (Jn 5:19, 30). Basically that is what this lesson is telling us: We cannot do anything by ourselves. When the lesson speaks of “trusting in your own strength” (1:1) it is talking about attempting to do anything by ourselves, as an independent unit, separate from God and His

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creation. It is talking about operating as an ego. The lesson is saying that it is simply impossible. Another example from the Gospels may help. Toward the end of his time on earth, Jesus compared himself to a vine, and his disciples to branches in the vine. He was speaking, I believe, from the perspective of the Christ; or perhaps it would be better to say the Christ was speaking through the man, Jesus. He said: “As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me….apart from me you can do nothing” (Jn 15:4–5). Think about it. Where does the vine leave off and the branch begin? The branch is part of the vine. That is its whole existence. It cannot operate independently; it cannot “bear fruit” if it is cut off from the vine. We are parts or aspects of the Sonship, and the Son is one with the Father. “What [God] creates is not apart from Him, and nowhere does the Father end, the Son begin as something separate from Him” (WpI.132.12:4). Sounds a lot like a vine and its branches, doesn’t it? When we try to operate independently we can do nothing. As we normally think of ourselves, what is there we can wholly predict and control? How can we “be aware of all the facets of any problem” and “resolve them in such a way that only good can come of it?” (1:4). Left to ourselves, left to the limited resources of the self as the ego sees it, cut off from everything, we simply cannot do it. We don’t have what it takes. “If you are trusting in your own strength, you have every reason to be apprehensive, anxious and fearful” (1:1). The lesson is asking us to recognize that we are not limited to what we may think of as our own strength; “God is the strength in which I trust.” It is asking us to operate based on our union with God. From where we are at the start of things, it is going to seem as if we are dealing with some kind of external God, a “Voice” that speaks within our minds or operates in circumstances to guide us: Since you believe that you are separate, Heaven presents itself to you as separate, too. Not that it is in truth, but that the link [the Holy Spirit] that has been given you to join the truth may reach to you through what you understand. (T-25.I.5:1–2) So it may seem as if we are being asked to “submit” to a superior force, when in fact all we are doing is aligning ourselves with all the rest of our own being, from which we have dissociated ourselves. The

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Holy Spirit speaks for us, as well as for God, for we are one (see T11.1.11:1; T-30.II.1:1–2; W-pI.125.8:1; W-pI.152.12:2). When we realize we cannot live on our own—when we accept our dependence on this Higher Power—God becomes our strength and our safety in every circumstance. His Voice tells us “exactly what to do to call upon His strength and His protection” (3:2). When we fear, we must be trusting in our own independent strength, which is nonexistent. Simply feeling inadequate for some task is a form of fear, arising from the belief I am on my own. “Who can put his faith in weakness and feel safe?” (2:3). When fear arises, let me remind myself that I do not trust in my own strength, but God’s. That reality can pull me up from fear to a place of deep, abiding peace. To recognize our weakness as independent beings is a necessary beginning (6:1). If we deceive ourselves into believing we can handle everything on our own, without God, without our brothers and sisters, we will crash and burn eventually. But that recognition is not the point at which to stop; we must go beyond that to realize that we have the strength of God, and that confidence in that strength “is fully justified in every respect and in all circumstances” (6:2). Nearly every time I meditate I repeat, silently or aloud, the words that come near the end of this lesson: There is a place in you where there is perfect peace. There is a place in you where nothing is impossible. There is a place in you where the strength of God abides. (7:4–6) Let us, today, pause frequently to reach down below “all the trivial things that churn and bubble on the surface of [our] mind” (7:3), to find that place.

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LESSON 48 • FEBRUARY 17 “There is nothing to fear.”

Practice instructions Frequent reminders: Very frequent, as often as possible. This has two forms. Use the longer whenever you can. 1. Repeat the idea. You can do this with eyes open under any circumstance, even while in conversation. It can take as little as two seconds. 2. Take a minute or so, close your eyes, and repeat the idea slowly several times. Remarks: The longer practice periods have been cleared away today, so you can focus on frequency. We saw the same thing in Lessons 20, 27, and 40. Today’s lesson, therefore, is part of a series designed to teach us the crucial habit of frequent practice. Therefore, rather than taking a rest today, really give it your all. The more you put into it, the more you’ll get out of it. Earlier lessons (27, 40) recommended setting a frequency at the beginning of the day and then trying to stick to it. I would recommend doing the same today. What sort of frequency should you set? Let’s look at previous lessons that specified a frequency: 20: two per hour 27: two to four per hour 39: three to four per hour 40: six per hour The average is three to four per hour, but notice also that the frequency goes up as the lessons go up. I would suggest picking a frequency you really think you can maintain, and then setting a firm intention to stick with it, and even taking a moment to imagine yourself practicing it frequently under different circumstances. During the day, when you notice you have lapsed, don’t be disturbed; it happens to all of us. Simply get back to practicing—immediately and without guilt. Response to temptation: When anything disturbs your peace of mind. Repeat the idea immediately.

Commentary One can understand this simple thought in at least two ways:

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1. Nothing exists of which to be afraid. 2. Fear? Nothing to it! As the third paragraph makes clear, this thought is connected to yesterday’s lesson about trusting in God’s strength versus trusting in our own strength, apart from Him. “The presence of fear is a sure sign that you are trusting in your own strength” (3:1). As the lesson yesterday said, “Who can put his faith in weakness and feel safe?” (W-pI.47.2:3). So, when we trust in our own strength, we feel fear. When we trust in God’s strength, we do not. Fear is nothing to be afraid of, however; it is merely a warning sign indicating that our faith is misplaced, and simply calls for correction, not condemnation. That there is nothing to fear is a simple fact, from the perspective of the right mind. God is all there is, and we are part of Him; nothing outside Him exists. Of course there is nothing to fear. Fear is a belief in something other than God, a false god, an idol with power that opposes and overcomes God. We secretly believe that we have done so, and so we fear, but what we are afraid of is ourselves. Yet what we think we have done has never occurred. Therefore there is nothing to fear. “Nothing real can be threatened” (T-In.2:2). If we believe in illusions, fear seems very real, but we are afraid of nothing. The lesson says it is “very easy to recognize” (1:4) that there is nothing to fear; what makes it seem difficult is that we want the illusions to be true (1:5). If they are not true, we are not who we think we are and who we wish to be; we are God’s creations instead, and not our own. So we hold on to the illusions to validate our egos, and in so doing, hold on to the fear. When we allow ourselves to recall that there is nothing to fear, when we consciously remind ourselves of that fact throughout the day, it shows that “somewhere in your mind, though not necessarily in a place you recognize as yet, you have remembered God, and let His strength take the place of your weakness” (3:2). This is what the Text calls the “right mind.” There is a part of our minds—really the only part there is—in which we have already remembered God! That part of our minds is what is waking us up from our dream. Have you ever wondered how you happened to come upon A Course in Miracles, and why it seems attractive to you? Your right mind has created this experience for you; your true Self is speaking to you through its pages to awaken you. Each time we repeat the thought for today, “There is nothing to fear,” we are aligning ourselves with the part of us that is already awake, and has already remembered. Since we are already awake, the outcome is inevitable. But we need

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this appearance of time to “give ourselves time,” so to speak, to dispense with our illusions and to recognize the ever-present truth of our reality.

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LESSON 49 • FEBRUARY 18 “God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To tune into and identify with the part of your mind where God’s Voice is always speaking to you. Longer: Four times (more if possible), for five minutes. This is yet another meditation exercise, like Lessons 41, 44, 45, and 47. After closing your eyes and repeating the idea (not mentioned today, but standard), go into the meditation. Again, I find it helpful to think of it as having three aspects: 1. Sink past the cloud of frantic, insane thoughts that chokes the surface of your mind. Sink down to the part of your mind where stillness reigns, where you are truly at home, and where God’s Voice speaks to you. Sinking down to this part also means listening to this part. 2. Draw your mind back from wandering by repeating the idea. 3. Above all, hold in mind the attitude that this is the happiest, holiest thing you could do, and that you are confident you can make it, because God wants you to. Frequent reminders: Very frequently. There is a range of options, which go from practicing under limiting circumstances to the ideal form of practice. This range applies to all the lessons: 1. Repeat the idea with eyes open when you have to. 2. Repeat it with eyes closed when possible. 3. Whenever you can, sit quietly, close your eyes, and repeat the idea. Make this an invitation to God’s Voice to speak to you.

Commentary “God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day.” Yes, It does! It may seem like wishful thinking to you when you say this sentence, but it isn’t. God’s Voice really does speak to us all through the day, every day. “The part of your mind in which truth abides [i.e., the right mind] is in constant communication with God, whether you are aware of it or not” (1:2). We aren’t usually aware of this communication, although we could be. Our consciousness simply isn’t tuned in. It’s like a radio signal. Here in Sedona we have a radio station called KAZM (“chasm,” cute, huh?). KAZM is in communication

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with my radio all through the day, but I may not have my radio tuned to that station. The Holy Spirit is in communication with my mind all through the day, but I may not be tuned in. There is another part of our mind that carries on the busy-ness of this world. That is the part we are mostly aware of. I’ll label it “wrong mind” so we can tell the parts apart. This part really does not exist, and the part tuned in to God (right mind) is really the only part there is (2:2–3). Thus, speaking of “parts” of our mind is really just a helpful fiction. The wrong mind is an illusion. The right mind is real. The wrong mind is frantic, distraught, filled with a chattering madhouse of “thoughts” that sound like the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland. The right mind is “calm, always at rest and wholly certain” (2:1). The right mind is what Lesson 47 spoke of when it said, “There is a place in you where there is perfect peace” (W-pI.47.7:4). In this place, “stillness and peace reign forever” (2:5). We can choose which voice to listen to, which “part” of our mind to attend to: the frantic voice or the peaceful Voice. Does it seem hard to believe that there is a place in you that is always perfectly peaceful, like the eye of a hurricane? But there is. I found it hard to believe, but when I began looking for it I began finding it. Often when we first try to find this place, the other voice shrieks so loudly that it seems we can’t ignore it (as the lesson instructs us to). Just the other day someone was telling me how when they sat in meditation, the onset of peace was so frightening that they had to jump up and get busy with something. Isn’t it weird that we find peace so unacceptable? Sit for a few minutes trying to be peaceful and something inside you is screaming, “I can’t stand it!” That’s the frantic voice. “Try,” the lesson says, “not to listen to it” (2:4). It’s worth the effort! That place of peace is there in all of us, and when we find it—ahhh! I still have some days when I can’t seem to stop the yama yama of my mind (as Werner Erhard calls that constant mental chatter), but the times when I sink into the peace beyond my thoughts are increasing, for which I am very grateful. You simply have to stop your activity to find it; you can’t find it without sitting down, quieting down, and shutting down for a while. The world is far too distracting otherwise, at first. Eventually we can learn to find this peace any time, anywhere, and even to bring it with us into chaotic situations. At first, however, we need to act out the stillness in order to find it, closing our eyes on the world, going past the stormy surface of our minds and into the deep, calm depths, asking God’s Voice to speak to us.

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One more thought. You might think, from this lesson, that if God’s Voice speaks to you all through the day, it must be easy to hear it. Wrong. The ego’s voice is characterized here as “raucous shrieks” (4:3), “frantic, riotous thoughts and sights and sounds” (4:4), and “constantly distracted” (1:4). Listening to God’s Voice, at first, is like trying to meditate in the middle of a riot. It’s like trying to compose a new tune while a rock band is tuning up. Or like trying to write a careful letter when three people are shouting different things into your ears. It’s hard work. It takes focus and concentration. It takes, above all, willingness. “The Holy Spirit’s Voice is as loud as your willingness to listen” (T-8.VIII.8:7). You have to be willing to tune out that other voice. The shrieks of the ego don’t just happen without our volition; they do not stem from some malevolent demon trying to frustrate our efforts to hear God. They are our own unwillingness taking form; that’s all. We’ve spent eons turning on the noisemakers in our own minds. We have to start going around and choosing to turn them off. So hearing the Holy Spirit isn’t something that happens overnight —read about it today, start being “divinely guided in all I do” tomorrow. No. It’s not that simple. In fact, in the Text, Jesus himself says that learning to listen only to that Voice and no other was the final lesson he learned, and that it takes effort and great willingness! The Holy Spirit is in you in a very literal sense. His is the Voice That calls you back to where you were before and will be again. It is possible even in this world to hear only that Voice and no other. It takes effort and great willingness to learn. It is the final lesson that I learned, and God’s Sons are as equal as learners as they are as sons. (T-5.II.3:7–11) So, let us begin today to learn this so-very-important lesson. Let us listen.

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LESSON 50 • FEBRUARY 19 “I am sustained by the Love of God.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To internalize the idea that you are sustained by God’s Love, not by the things of the world, and to feel the protection, peace, and safety His Love brings. Longer: Two times, morning and evening, for ten minutes. Spend these ten minutes repeating the idea and really dwelling on it and thinking about it. Let related thoughts come “to help you recognize its truth” (5:2). Do all this with the goal of letting the idea sink more deeply into your mind. Bask in the idea. Feel the benefits it carries for you. Try to feel God’s Love covering you like a blanket of peace and safety. This is not a meditation exercise, but an extended exercise in mentally reflecting on the idea. Your thoughts will tend to wander during lengthy reflection like this. When they do, see those thoughts as intruders that have inappropriately wandered into the temple of the holy mind of God’s Son. Repeat the idea to dispel them. Frequent reminders: Often. Repeat the idea, not just as rote words, but as a real “declaration of independence” (W-pI.31.4:2)—a declaration that you are free of needing to be sustained by the empty things of this world. Try repeating it once in this spirit right now, and see the effect it has on your mind. Response to temptation: Whenever you feel confronted by a problem or challenge. Answer what confronts you by repeating the idea. While doing so, remember that “through the Love of God within you, you can resolve all seeming difficulties without effort and in sure confidence” (4:5).

Commentary What sustains me? What do I turn to when I feel empty or depleted? God—my eternal Source? Or something else? I have to admit that often it is to something else that I turn for renewal. What would it be like to have a habit of turning to the Love of God? What would it be like to come to rely fully on something so utterly and absolutely dependable?

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The list of items in the first paragraph of the lesson contains something that fits nearly every one of us. Whatever my personal preference for “sustainer,” the whole bunch of them is just “an endless list of forms of nothingness that [we] endow with magical powers” (1:3). When we turn to them, something in us knows that these things are not really solving anything; they are nothing but palliatives, placebos that may dull the symptoms for a while but in the end cure nothing. I think it was Saint Augustine who said that every one of us is born with a God-shaped blank in our heart. We may try to fill it with all sorts of things, but nothing fits the blank but the Love of God. We “cherish” the other things because we are trying to preserve our imagined, independent identity as an ego in a body. We are cherishing nothingness to preserve a nothing. Wholeness comes only from union with our Source. The Love of God can “transport you into a state of mind that nothing can threaten, nothing can disturb, and where nothing can intrude upon the eternal calm of the Son of God” (3:3). [Note: a few early printings of the Second Edition had a typographical error, substituting the word “claim” for “calm.”] I want a state of mind like that. I want that kind of inner stability, that serenity of consciousness. What else could bring it to me except knowing that I am connected to an unending supply of bottomless benevolence? The Psalmist said it well in the First Psalm. The “godly,” those who know they are sustained by God’s Love, “shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper” (Ps 1:3). When you become inwardly aware of God’s Love sustaining you, it is like being a tree planted by a river, its roots constantly supplied by the water that is always there, always being renewed. Or from the Twenty-third Psalm: “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want….My cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life” (Ps 23:1, 5–6). Put all your faith in the Love of God within you; eternal, changeless and forever unfailing. This is the answer to whatever confronts you today. (4:3–4) Again the practice instructions tell us to “sink deep into your consciousness” (5:1). (Notice that it is for a ten-minute period, morning and evening; the periods of meditation are getting longer.) We are to “allow peace to flow over [us] like a blanket of protection and

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surety” (5:2). Often I find it helps me establish that sense by visualizing something—being bathed in golden light, being embraced by my spiritual guide, or sinking into a warm Jacuzzi. I can let it be a time of rest, ten minutes in which I simply let go, physically and mentally, and allow myself to experience peace. I tell myself: “I am okay. I am safe. I am at home in God. His Love surrounds me and protects me. His Love nourishes me and makes me what I am.”

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REVIEW I INTRODUCTION In Review I, the third and fourth paragraphs present a theory of practice that is useful in understanding why the Workbook is structured as it is. In fact, the paragraphs imply a lot about the importance of structure itself, which changes as we progress in our practice. Five degrees of structure are indicated here, moving from highly structured to almost none.

1. Highly Structured with Formal Setting In the beginning of our study, the Course recommends quite highly structured practice, with attention to certain forms. The earlier lessons in the Workbook all go to great lengths spelling out the specific details concerning how the lesson should be practiced. In this review, for instance, we are told that we do not need to review the comments after each of the five daily thoughts in any great detail (3:1). Rather, we are to focus on the central point and think about that, allowing related ideas to come to us as we have been doing in recent lessons. In addition we are told that “the exercises should be done with your eyes closed and when you are alone in a quiet place, if possible” (3:3). This is what I mean when I say it pays attention to form. It deals with where we should be (in a quiet place) and specifically what we should do with our eyes. It adds that this kind of instruction is “emphasized for practice periods at your stage of learning” (4:1), which is obviously understood to be the beginning stage. The idea behind this sort of instruction seems to be that, at the beginning stage, we need structure, and we need physical solitude and quietness. We need to close our eyes to shut out distractions because our minds have not been sufficiently trained to ignore the distractions without doing so. We are training ourselves to have inner peace, and at the beginning it is helpful to encourage that state of mind by arranging our environment.

2. No Special Setting As we advance, it will become necessary to give up the formal setting and structure, so that we can “learn to require no special settings in which to apply what you have learned” (4:2). Initially, to find peace of mind, we need a quiet place, we need to close our eyes. But as we go on, the intent is that we begin to apply our learning in situations that appear to be upsetting. After all, when is peace most

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needed? Obviously, it is needed when something happens that seems to upset us (4:3). We have begun to advance when we learn to generalize, when we are able to take what we have learned in the “laboratory” of quiet practice and apply it in distressing situations. This will happen almost without conscious volition. Suddenly we will notice that things that used to instantly upset us no longer do so. Or we will find ourselves reacting with love instead of anger. The Workbook practice encourages this “spread” of the lessons into our lives by asking us to remember the thought for the day whenever something happens that upsets us. This takes the lesson out of the laboratory and into our lives. This kind of expanded practice, or “response to temptation,” as it is called, is vital if the Course is going to make a noticeable difference in our lives.

3. Bringing Peace with Us As our practice of the first sort continues, and as we begin to respond to upsets by choosing to experience peace instead of the upset, we begin to move into a third stage: we start to bring peace with us into every situation (4:4). In the second stage we are reacting to a situation and choosing peace; here, we are proactively bringing peace with us into distress and turmoil, healing the situations we find. Our quiet practice has established a certain level of peace within our minds, and now we bring the quiet with us as we move through our days. “This is not done by avoiding [distress and turmoil] and seeking a haven of isolation for yourself” (4:5). At this level of development we have ended any attempt at monastic isolation and we are reaching out into the world, bringing healing to it. We may still withdraw periodically to “recharge,” as it were, but we are no longer fearful of distress and turmoil; we even begin to actively seek out situations in which our healed mind can bring healing to others.

4. Recognizing Peace Is Part of Us At a higher level still, we begin to realize that peace is not some quality or condition that comes and goes; rather, it is an inherent part of our being (5:1). Here we have realized that peace is not conditional. It does not depend on conditions. It is inherent in our nature; it is what we are. We have become identified with peace so that, simply by being there, we bring peace into every situation in which we find

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ourselves. We no longer need to get alone or shut our eyes to feel peaceful; we are the peace. Conditions around us do not affect our peace; instead, our peace affects the conditions.

5. Peace Seen Everywhere At the highest level, we will realize that our physical presence is not required to affect any situation. We realize that “there is no limit to where you are, so that your peace is everywhere, as you are” (5:2). This is the state of mind of the advanced teacher of God, or what, in some circles, might be called a realized master. This state of mind will not long abide in a body, because it has transcended bodily limitations. This broad overview of where the Course is taking us can be very encouraging as we struggle with the elementary level. Look at the scope of the Course’s program. Starting with a level at which our peace is so vulnerable that we must close our eyes and shut out the world, it moves to transcend the world entirely. We may long to be at the highest level right away; it doesn’t work that way. You can’t skip steps, as Ken Wapnick often points out. Don’t get caught in the trap of thinking, “I ought to be able to experience peace anywhere,” and because of that refuse yourself the support of being alone, quiet, and shutting your eyes. At the beginning those props are necessary and even, in the Course’s curriculum, emphasized. Don’t think you are being untrue to your highest understanding by setting up a formal structure for yourself, perhaps setting an alarm to remember your practice times, writing the lesson on cards and carrying it around, or asking a friend to remind you and check up on you. At the beginning, almost anything that helps you remember is useful. The structure won’t last, and should not last. But you need the structure at the start in order to get to where being unstructured will work for you. Try to skip immediately to unstructured practice and you’ll end up not practicing at all. Use structure, but don’t get attached to it. Don’t make an idol of it. The structure is like training wheels on a bicycle: necessary and useful as you are learning, but to be discarded as soon as you have learned to keep upright on your own.

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LESSON 51 • FEBRUARY 20 Review of Lessons 1 to 5 “Nothing I see means anything.” “I have given what I see all the meaning it has for me.” “I do not understand anything I see.” “These thoughts do not mean anything.” “I am never upset for the reason I think.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To review the lessons and therefore let them sink in a notch deeper. Also, to see how interrelated they are and how cohesive the thought system is that they are leading you to. Exercise: As often as possible (suggestion: every hour on the hour), for at least two minutes. • Alone in a quiet place, read one of the five lessons and the related comments. Notice that the comments are written as if they are your own thoughts about the idea. Try to imagine that they are. It will help if you frequently insert your name. This will set you up for the next phase, in which you generate similar thoughts of your own. • Close your eyes and think about the idea and the comments. Think particularly about the central point of the commentary paragraph. Reflect on it. Let related thoughts come (utilizing the training you’ve received in that practice). If your mind wanders, repeat the idea and then get back to your reflection. This is the same basic exercise as in Lesson 50, in which you actively think about ideas in order to let them sink more deeply into your mind. Remarks: • At the beginning and end of the day read all five lessons. • Thereafter, cover one lesson per practice period, in no particular order. • Cover each lesson at least once. • Beyond that, concentrate on a particular lesson if it appeals to you most.

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Commentary Note first that we aren’t simply to read this review; we are meant to spend time morning and evening reviewing all five ideas, and to spend at least one two-minute practice period during the day on each of the five. That’s five practice periods between the morning and evening, minimum. It will probably take a little planning to schedule those five interim periods, and the planning time is worth the effort. Second, notice that these practice instructions apply to all ten review lessons for the next ten days. The comments on the five lessons given in Lesson 51 link them together so clearly that little comment is really needed. As the introduction to this review says in the last sentence, the emphasis of this review is on the relationships between the ideas and the cohesiveness of the entire thought system being presented. If you look at them together, they are lessons in “letting go” (the words “let go” or some variant occur in four of the five reviews). In these first five lessons I am being asked to let go of: 1. What I see 2. My judgments 3. My understanding 4. My thoughts 5. My thought system What we “see” in the normal sense is nothing; we need to realize it is meaningless and let it go, so that vision may take its place. We are not actually seeing things; rather, we are seeing our judgments on them. If we want vision, we have to realize our judgments are invalid, and cease letting them govern our sight. If we have misjudged, surely we have also misunderstood. Our “understanding” of things is based not on reality, but on our own projections. But we can choose to exchange our misunderstandings for real understanding, based on love rather than judgment. Like what we see, our conscious thoughts are without any real meaning; we need to let them go, along with judgment-based perceptions. They are thoughts of anger and attack, seeing all things as our enemies. These thoughts which are apart from God require constant justification, and our upset is no more than an attempt to justify our anger with the world and our attacks upon it. As we read over this review, which is written in the first person, we may want to try reading it aloud, and seeing how we resonate with it. Am I really willing to let go of what I see, my judgments and my

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understanding of everything, my thoughts, and my very thought system? Can I say, “I am willing to let it go”?

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LESSON 52 • FEBRUARY 21 Review of Lessons 6 to 10 “I am upset because I see what is not there.” “I see only the past.” “My mind is preoccupied with past thoughts.” “I see nothing as it is now.” “My thoughts do not mean anything.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To review the lessons and therefore let them sink in a notch deeper. Also, to see how interrelated they are and how cohesive the thought system is that they are leading you to. Exercise: As often as possible (suggestion: every hour on the hour), for at least two minutes. • Alone in a quiet place, read one of the five lessons and the related comments. Notice that the comments are written as if they are your own thoughts about the idea. Try to imagine that they are. It will help if you frequently insert your name. This will set you up for the next phase, in which you generate similar thoughts of your own. • Close your eyes and think about the idea and the comments. Think particularly about the central point of the commentary paragraph. Reflect on it. Let related thoughts come (utilizing the training you’ve received in that practice). If your mind wanders, repeat the idea and then get back to your reflection. This is the same basic exercise as in Lesson 50, in which you actively think about ideas in order to let them sink more deeply into your mind. Remarks: • At the beginning and end of the day read all five lessons. • Thereafter, cover one lesson per practice period, in no particular order. • Cover each lesson at least once. • Beyond that, concentrate on a particular lesson if it appeals to you most.

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Commentary Remember that the general practice for these reviews is to read all five thoughts and comments twice daily, morning and evening, and to spend at least one two-minute period with each of the five ideas during the day. The thoughts are thick in these reviews, so I offer only a few observations on things that stand out for me. “Reality is never frightening” (1:2). Reality is, of course, what God created. When I feel frightened, I find it useful to remind myself that I must be seeing something that isn’t really there. I am the one who makes up frightening illusions. How reassuring to be told, “Nothing in God’s creation is affected in any way by this confusion of mine” (1:7). That is the basis for letting go of guilt. I may be confused, mistaken, deceived, and deceiving, but none of it affects what is real. What’s real is real no matter what I do. The sun doesn’t go out when I cover my eyes. So all that I have done has had zero real effects! I have nothing about which to feel guilty. “If I see nothing as it is now, it can truly be said that I see nothing” (4:2). A thing is as it is now. It isn’t as it was yesterday; it isn’t as it will be tomorrow. Things exist now. That is the only way I can see them. That is how they are. If I am seeing the past, I’m not seeing anything. The past isn’t here. “I have no private thoughts” (5:2). What if everyone in the world could see right into your mind? What if the way you thought about your boss affected the war in Bosnia? Guess what? They can. It does. And yet, “they mean nothing” (5:5). If you think thoughts you believe to be private, they are meaningless. They have effects within the illusion, but they affect nothing real. Only thoughts that are shared have real effects, and the only thoughts that can be truly shared are the thoughts you think with God.

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LESSON 53 • FEBRUARY 22 Review of Lessons 11 to 15 “My meaningless thoughts are showing me a meaningless world.” “I am upset because I see a meaningless world.” “A meaningless world engenders fear.” “God did not create a meaningless world.” “My thoughts are images that I have made.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To review the lessons and therefore let them sink in a notch deeper. Also, to see how interrelated they are and how cohesive the thought system is that they are leading you to. Exercise: As often as possible (suggestion: every hour on the hour), for at least two minutes. • Alone in a quiet place, read one of the five lessons and the related comments. Notice that the comments are written as if they are your own thoughts about the idea. Try to imagine that they are. It will help if you frequently insert your name. This will set you up for the next phase, in which you generate similar thoughts of your own. • Close your eyes and think about the idea and the comments. Think particularly about the central point of the commentary paragraph. Reflect on it. Let related thoughts come (utilizing the training you’ve received in that practice). If your mind wanders, repeat the idea and then get back to your reflection. This is the same basic exercise as in Lesson 50, in which you actively think about ideas in order to let them sink more deeply into your mind. Remarks: • At the beginning and end of the day read all five lessons. • Thereafter, cover one lesson per practice period, in no particular order. • Cover each lesson at least once. • Beyond that, concentrate on a particular lesson if it appeals to you most.

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Commentary Today’s review carries enormous impact for me. In each of the short review paragraphs are sentences that convey to me the awesome power of my own mind: its power to choose its thoughts, and thus choose the world that it sees. I have real thoughts as well as insane ones. I can therefore see a real world, if I look to my real thoughts as my guide for seeing. (1:4–5) I am grateful that this world is not real, and that I need not see it at all unless I choose to value it. And I do not choose to value what is totally insane and has no meaning. (2:6–7) Now I choose to withdraw this belief, and place my trust in reality. In choosing this, I will escape all the effects of the world of fear, because I am acknowledging that it does not exist. (3:7–8) Let me remember the power of my decision, and recognize where I really abide. (4:6) The images I have made cannot prevail against Him because it is not my will that they do so. My will is His, and I will place no other gods before Him. (5:6–7) If I remember the power of my decision, I can choose not to value what is insane; I can choose to withdraw my belief in it. I do not have to accept that the images I have made have power to overcome God’s Will; I do not have to make gods out of them. I can look to my real thoughts and let them guide my seeing. The words “choose” and “decision” and “will” echo through these paragraphs. What power has been given to my mind! I once read these ten review lessons onto tape; they fit on less than a 30-minute tape, read quite slowly. Recording them had tremendous impact on me, and listening to the tape several dozen times had even more impact. These fifty pithy paragraphs are a remarkable overview of the Course’s thought system. And as I read them aloud, I found myself putting deep feeling into sentences such as “I cannot live in peace in such a world. I am grateful that this world is not real. And I do not choose to value what is totally insane and has no meaning” (2:5–7). Every time I came to a line that said, “I do not choose” or “I

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choose,” it was as though something deep within me was shifting. I felt a growing determination, and a sense of being enabled by God to choose what my mind would think and what my perception would see. Try reading today’s lesson aloud and see how it feels.

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LESSON 54 • FEBRUARY 23 Review of Lessons 16 to 20 “I have no neutral thoughts.” “I see no neutral things.” “I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my seeing.” “I am not alone in experiencing the effects of my thoughts.” “I am determined to see.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To review the lessons and therefore let them sink in a notch deeper. Also, to see how interrelated they are and how cohesive the thought system is that they are leading you to. Exercise: As often as possible (suggestion: every hour on the hour), for at least two minutes. • Alone in a quiet place, read one of the five lessons and the related comments. Notice that the comments are written as if they are your own thoughts about the idea. Try to imagine that they are. It will help if you frequently insert your name. This will set you up for the next phase, in which you generate similar thoughts of your own. • Close your eyes and think about the idea and the comments. Think particularly about the central point of the commentary paragraph. Reflect on it. Let related thoughts come (utilizing the training you’ve received in that practice). If your mind wanders, repeat the idea and then get back to your reflection. This is the same basic exercise as in Lesson 50, in which you actively think about ideas in order to let them sink more deeply into your mind. Remarks: • At the beginning and end of the day read all five lessons. • Thereafter, cover one lesson per practice period, in no particular order. • Cover each lesson at least once. • Beyond that, concentrate on a particular lesson if it appeals to you most.

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Commentary This review links these ideas together as a powerful motivator for changing my thoughts. My thoughts make the world, either the false world or the real world. The world I see is a “representation of my own state of mind” (2:4). I can contribute to the making of a world of separation, or I can, by awakening my real thoughts, awaken those thoughts in others. What I think and say and do “teaches all the universe” (4:3). By changing my own mind, I can change every mind along with mine. When I realize this, I am filled with a dynamic determination to look upon the real world, to open my mind to the thoughts I share with God, and in so doing, to transform the universe. Archimedes is reputed to have said, “Give me a lever long enough, and I will move the world.” I have that lever. It is my mind; “mine is the power of God” (4:6). One man whose mind is wholly transformed will transform all the world. Jesus was such a man, and the impact of his thought is still unfolding, the ripples still spreading in the pond of mind. I can join with him and add the power of my mind to his. I do want to see “love…replace fear, laughter…replace tears” (5:4). I want to let this be done through me. In each situation in which I find myself today, with each person I meet, may this be my aim. “I am here only to be truly helpful. I am here to represent Him who sent me” (T-2.V(A).18:2–3). By allowing my mind to be changed, I will bring healing to everyone I meet today.

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LESSON 55 • FEBRUARY 24 Review of Lessons 21 to 25 “I am determined to see things differently.” “What I see is a form of vengeance.” “I can escape from this world by giving up attack thoughts.” “I do not perceive my own best interests.” “I do not know what anything is for.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To review the lessons and therefore let them sink in a notch deeper. Also, to see how interrelated they are and how cohesive the thought system is that they are leading you to. Exercise: As often as possible (suggestion: every hour on the hour), for at least two minutes. • Alone in a quiet place, read one of the five lessons and the related comments. Notice that the comments are written as if they are your own thoughts about the idea. Try to imagine that they are. It will help if you frequently insert your name. This will set you up for the next phase, in which you generate similar thoughts of your own. • Close your eyes and think about the idea and the comments. Think particularly about the central point of the commentary paragraph. Reflect on it. Let related thoughts come (utilizing the training you’ve received in that practice). If your mind wanders, repeat the idea and then get back to your reflection. This is the same basic exercise as in Lesson 50, in which you actively think about ideas in order to let them sink more deeply into your mind. Remarks: • At the beginning and end of the day read all five lessons. • Thereafter, cover one lesson per practice period, in no particular order. • Cover each lesson at least once. • Beyond that, concentrate on a particular lesson if it appeals to you most.

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Commentary The pattern laid down by the first fifty lessons becomes clearer with each day of review. The writing in these ten review lessons is among the clearest and most straightforward in the entire Course. Of course I am determined to see things differently; “disease, disaster and death” (1:2) are not what I want to see. That I see them proves I do not understand God, and I do not know who I am. The world I see pictures attack thoughts, “attack on everything by everything” (2:3). In this world everything lives by consuming the life of something else; whether it is the life of an animal or a plant makes little difference. Even the lowest life form lives from the energy given off by the destruction of the Sun. What gives rise to this picture? My own attack thoughts. “My loving thoughts will save me from this perception of the world” (2:6). Changing my mind from attack to love will change the world I see. “It is this I choose to see, in place of what I look on now” (3:5). And no wonder I am confused about my best interests! I don’t know who I am; how could I know what I need? I am willing to accept the guidance of One Who knows me; I understand that I can’t perceive my best interests by myself. I use everything to sustain my illusions about myself (4:4). What I need is a way to let the world teach me the truth about myself. Seeing it as I see it, the world is frightening; I want to know the truth. The transformation hinges on my willingness to recognize that I do not like what I see, and since what I see comes from what I think, I want to change what I think. I do not know my best interests, and the purpose I have assigned to everything has been twisted to support my ego identity (5:2), so now I am willing to let these ideas go. Confused as I am, how could I teach myself what I do not know? I need a reliable, trustworthy Teacher, and in the Holy Spirit I have that Teacher. My only job is to make myself teachable by letting go of my false thinking, letting go of my attack thoughts. I think they sustain me but they are destroying me. I resolve today to choose differently, and to open my mind to a way of thinking I cannot, as yet, begin to understand. I open my heart to love.

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LESSON 56 • FEBRUARY 25 Review of Lessons 26–30 “My attack thoughts are attacking my invulnerability.” “Above all else I want to see.” “Above all else I want to see differently.” “God is in everything I see.” “God is in everything I see because God is in my mind.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To review the lessons and therefore let them sink in a notch deeper. Also, to see how interrelated they are and how cohesive the thought system is that they are leading you to. Exercise: As often as possible (suggestion: every hour on the hour), for at least two minutes. • Alone in a quiet place, read one of the five lessons and the related comments. Notice that the comments are written as if they are your own thoughts about the idea. Try to imagine that they are. It will help if you frequently insert your name. This will set you up for the next phase, in which you generate similar thoughts of your own. • Close your eyes and think about the idea and the comments. Think particularly about the central point of the commentary paragraph. Reflect on it. Let related thoughts come (utilizing the training you’ve received in that practice). If your mind wanders, repeat the idea and then get back to your reflection. This is the same basic exercise as in Lesson 50, in which you actively think about ideas in order to let them sink more deeply into your mind. Remarks: • At the beginning and end of the day read all five lessons. • Thereafter, cover one lesson per practice period, in no particular order. • Cover each lesson at least once. • Beyond that, concentrate on a particular lesson if it appeals to you most.

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Commentary The Door behind the World There is a door behind this world which, if opened, will allow me to see past this world to a world that reflects the Love of God (3:4). It is a door in my mind, a door to vision. This world, full of “pain, illness, loss, age and death” (1:3) simply reflects what I think I am (2:2–3). It is a hallucination superimposed over reality, hiding it and seemingly replacing it. The opening line of the review asks: “How can I know who I am when I see myself as under constant attack?” (1:2). Think about that. If I am truly under constant attack, beset by illness, loss, age and death, how can I be a perfect creation of God? How can God even be real? I believe in a self-image that is constantly threatened. If I am threatened, how could I be an eternal, spiritual being? If the picture I see in this world is true, then I am nothing, worth nothing, and destined for destruction. I may as well say, “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die!” I may as well take what I can get because nothing will last, including myself. Something in all of us, however, tells us that we are more than this (5:2). Something in us resonates when we read, in the Course, that nothing real can be threatened. If that is true, and I am real, then the world I see must be false. The picture it is showing me, reinforcing my image of myself as vulnerable, must be a lie. Either I am real and the world is not, or the world is real and I am not. “For I am real because the world is not, and I would know my own reality” (WpI.132.15:3). Therefore my greatest need is vision. I need to open that door in my mind, “look past all appearances” (4:6), and see a world that reflects God’s Love, and by so doing remember who I really am. “Behind every image I have made, the truth remains unchanged” (4:2). “In my own mind, behind all my insane thoughts of separation and attack, is the knowledge that all is one forever. I have not lost the knowledge of Who I am because I have forgotten it” (5:2–3). I want to open that door behind the world and see the truth again. I want to remember.

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LESSON 57 • FEBRUARY 26 Review of Lessons 31–35 “I am not the victim of the world I see.” “I have invented the world I see.” “There is another way of looking at the world.” “I could see peace instead of this.” “My mind is part of God’s. I am very holy.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To review the lessons and therefore let them sink in a notch deeper. Also, to see how interrelated they are and how cohesive the thought system is that they are leading you to. Exercise: As often as possible (suggestion: every hour on the hour), for at least two minutes. • Alone in a quiet place, read one of the five lessons and the related comments. Notice that the comments are written as if they are your own thoughts about the idea. Try to imagine that they are. It will help if you frequently insert your name. This will set you up for the next phase, in which you generate similar thoughts of your own. • Close your eyes and think about the idea and the comments. Think particularly about the central point of the commentary paragraph. Reflect on it. Let related thoughts come (utilizing the training you’ve received in that practice). If your mind wanders, repeat the idea and then get back to your reflection. This is the same basic exercise as in Lesson 50, in which you actively think about ideas in order to let them sink more deeply into your mind. Remarks: • At the beginning and end of the day read all five lessons. • Thereafter, cover one lesson per practice period, in no particular order. • Cover each lesson at least once. • Beyond that, concentrate on a particular lesson if it appeals to you most.

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Commentary The review today echoes with the word “freedom.” (Emphasis in following quotes is my own.) My chains are loosened. I can drop them off merely by desiring to do so. The prison door is open. I can leave simply by walking out. (1:3–6) I made up the prison in which I see myself. All I need do is recognize this and I am free. (2:2–3) The Son of God must be forever free.

(2:6)

I see the world as a prison for God’s Son. It must be, then, that the world is really a place where he can be set free. I would look upon the world as it is, and see it as a place where the Son of God finds his freedom. (3:4–6) When I see the world as a place of freedom, I realize that it reflects the laws of God instead of the rules I made up for it to obey. (4:2) The beauty of acknowledging that I have invented the world I see is that it affirms my freedom to see it differently. Recognize that I have made up my prison, and I am free. And I am already free; all of us are free, now, in our own minds. The prison is an illusion. I can choose my thoughts, and that is the ultimate freedom. I can choose to look upon the world as a place where I can be set free, and where you can be set free. I can choose to see the world as a prison, or as a classroom. How I see it is my choice—my choice! I am free to make that choice. I can see peace any time I choose to. I am free to do that. These moments I spend in quiet each day, practicing these lessons, are showing me that. I can create peace in my mind any time I choose to do so. To choose peace of mind is the ultimate freedom, and depends on nothing outside of me at all. I begin to understand, as I share this peace with my brothers, that the peace is not coming from outside, but “from deep within myself” (5:3). As my mind changes, the way I see the world changes with it. It witnesses peace back to me. And so “I begin to understand the holiness of all living things, including myself, and their oneness with me” (5:6).

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Years ago, when I had only begun to study the Course, I sat down one day and tried to answer a question: “What have I learned about life? What am I reasonably sure of?” And the answer that came to me was very simple: “Happiness is a choice I make.” I had begun to realize the freedom of my mind to choose. I had begun to realize that my mind was truly autonomous in this choice. It needed nothing from outside to make happiness possible; it was purely a choice. And nothing outside could impede that choice. I am still learning that lesson, building on it, solidifying it within my experience. That is what this review is telling us. We are free to choose. We really are free, right now. Our minds are all-powerful in this choice. They lack nothing to make it, and there is nothing that can stop us from making it. What is more, God wills that we make it because His Will for us is perfect happiness. Today, let me remember that I want to be happy, and I can choose, in every moment, to be happy. I want to be at peace, and I can choose, in every moment, to be at peace. Happiness is peace, for how could I be happy if I am in conflict? Today, I will make this choice!

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LESSON 58 • FEBRUARY 27 Review of Lessons 36–40 “My holiness envelops everything I see.” “My holiness blesses the world.” “There is nothing my holiness cannot do.” “My holiness is my salvation.” “I am blessed as a Son of God.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To review the lessons and therefore let them sink in a notch deeper. Also, to see how interrelated they are and how cohesive the thought system is that they are leading you to. Exercise: As often as possible (suggestion: every hour on the hour), for at least two minutes. • Alone in a quiet place, read one of the five lessons and the related comments. Notice that the comments are written as if they are your own thoughts about the idea. Try to imagine that they are. It will help if you frequently insert your name. This will set you up for the next phase, in which you generate similar thoughts of your own. • Close your eyes and think about the idea and the comments. Think particularly about the central point of the commentary paragraph. Reflect on it. Let related thoughts come (utilizing the training you’ve received in that practice). If your mind wanders, repeat the idea and then get back to your reflection. This is the same basic exercise as in Lesson 50, in which you actively think about ideas in order to let them sink more deeply into your mind. Remarks: • At the beginning and end of the day read all five lessons. • Thereafter, cover one lesson per practice period, in no particular order. • Cover each lesson at least once. • Beyond that, concentrate on a particular lesson if it appeals to you most.

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Commentary “Innocence…is the truth about me” (1:4). I don’t really believe that. I want to believe it, and I may say I believe it, but if I really believed it I don’t think I’d still be here. At the least I would not be seeing the world the way I do, because the way I see the world derives completely from the way I see myself. “I can picture only thoughts about myself” (1:5). So if I really believed that innocence is the truth about me, all I would see, everywhere, is innocence. Holiness. This is why accepting the Atonement for myself saves the world. If I can accept my own innocence, all I will see is innocence. We often allow confusion to come into our minds about who forgives whom first. Do I forgive others, and then see my own innocence? Or do I forgive myself, thus allowing me to see others as innocent? The answer to both questions is “Yes.” How can both questions be answered “Yes?” Because “myself” and “others” are not really two; we are one. The sin I see in others is always my own, projected from my mind (see T-31.III.1:5). When I forgive “others” I really am forgiving my own sins. Any act of forgiveness, whether directed outward or inward, results in everyone being forgiven. Thus, when I perceive my own holiness, I have blessed the entire world. The holiness I see in myself, when I see it, is something shared by everyone. As my own innocence arises in my mind, the holiness of the entire world shines forth simultaneously. Innocence, or holiness, is a central theme of the Course. “Everyone has a special part to play in the Atonement, but the message given to each one is always the same: God’s Son is guiltless” (T-14.V.2:1). “But the content of the [universal] course never changes [whatever its form]. Its central theme is always, ‘God’s Son is guiltless, and in his innocence is his salvation’” (M-1.3:5). It is a message of radical innocence, total innocence, universal innocence, with no one and nothing left out. No one is condemned. No one is judged guilty. No one is damned. “Recognizing my holiness is recognizing my salvation. It is also recognizing the salvation of the world” (4:2–3). As a Son of God, I am holy, and thus I am blessed. But if I am a Son of God, so are you, so is everyone, because I am a Son of God not by any merit of my own, not by any achievement that distinguishes me from anyone else, but simply due to the fact that God created me holy. As I recognize this fact about myself I must include everyone God created, or I am excluded with everyone.

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My claim on innocence, and on “all good and only good” (5:2), lies in the fact that I am the Son of God. God willed good things for me, and so I must have them—not because I earned them in any way, but because He wills to give them. “His care for me is infinite, and is with me forever. I am eternally blessed as His Son” (5:7–8). It does not matter what I think about myself or how badly I may believe I have screwed things up: I am still His Son. I am still innocent. I am still holy. Remember this; whatever you think about yourself, whatever you may think about the world, your Father needs you and will call to you until you come to Him in peace at last. (S-3.IV.10:7) Have faith in only this one thing, and it will be sufficient: God wills you be in Heaven, and nothing can keep you from it, or it from you. Your wildest misperceptions, your weird imaginings, your blackest nightmares all mean nothing. They will not prevail against the peace God wills for you. (T-13.XI.7:1– 3)

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LESSON 59 • FEBRUARY 28 Review of Lessons 41–45 “God goes with me wherever I go.” “God is my strength. Vision is His gift.” “God is my Source. I cannot see apart from Him.” “God is the light in which I see.” “God is the Mind with which I think.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To review the lessons and therefore let them sink in a notch deeper. Also, to see how interrelated they are and how cohesive the thought system is that they are leading you to. Exercise: As often as possible (suggestion: every hour on the hour), for at least two minutes. • Alone in a quiet place, read one of the five lessons and the related comments. Notice that the comments are written as if they are your own thoughts about the idea. Try to imagine that they are. It will help if you frequently insert your name. This will set you up for the next phase, in which you generate similar thoughts of your own. • Close your eyes and think about the idea and the comments. Think particularly about the central point of the commentary paragraph. Reflect on it. Let related thoughts come (utilizing the training you’ve received in that practice). If your mind wanders, repeat the idea and then get back to your reflection. This is the same basic exercise as in Lesson 50, in which you actively think about ideas in order to let them sink more deeply into your mind. Remarks: • At the beginning and end of the day read all five lessons. • Thereafter, cover one lesson per practice period, in no particular order. • Cover each lesson at least once. • Beyond that, concentrate on a particular lesson if it appeals to you most.

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Commentary The first emphasis of these five ideas is obviously on God; every thought begins with that word. God is always with me. He is my strength, my Source, my light, and the Mind with which I think. As the Bible says, “He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist” (Acts 17:27–28). When I recognize that the environment in which I exist, the very energy that forms my life, is God, peace comes to my mind. How could I ever be separate from the Infinite? The Son of God “cannot separate himself from what is in him” (T-13.XI.10:2), and what he is in. The second emphasis I notice is on my seeing. “Christ’s vision is His gift….Let me call upon this gift today” (2:5–6). “I can see only what God wants me to see. I cannot see anything else” (3:3–4). “I cannot see in darkness. God is the only light” (4:2–3). Any seeming vision apart from God cannot be real. Vision is His gift, God’s Will determines what can be seen, and God is the light by which we see it. Let me be glad to see what He shows me; let me see as He wills me to see. Throughout, the lesson emphasizes my unity with God. If I am one with God and all creation, how can I see other than He does? To think I see differently, therefore, is to deny what I am and to wish I were something else apart from God, able to see what He does not. To share His vision and His thoughts is to affirm my true Self, as He created me.

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LEAP YEAR DAY • FEBRUARY 29 In leap years, which have an extra day (February 29), there are several options for how to handle the extra day. One option is simply to continue to the next lesson, and thus finish the year’s lessons a day early, or by repeating the final lesson six times instead of the five times called for. This has the effect of shifting all the lessons to a different day of the calendar for the rest of the year. In these lesson notes, we have chosen not to do this, so that the notes will be usable without change for any calendar year. Another option is simply to repeat the lesson for February 28 (Lesson 59), or the one for March 1 (Lesson 60). Since these are already review lessons, this does not seem particularly useful. Three remaining possibilities are: 1) choose a favorite lesson, and do that lesson for February 29; 2) take a day off, doing no particular practice; or 3) use the day to do a complete read-through of all ten lessons in Review I. My recommendation is the third of these remaining possibilities, but you can choose to do whatever you like. The reason I recommend doing a complete read-through of Review I is that these ten lessons, taken together, provide one of the clearest, most concise, and most readable summaries of the thoughts that the first fifty lessons have been trying to teach us. Robert Perry has said that this review is so plain and simply written that it ends any question as to whether the author is capable of such clarity and simplicity; it also gives us reason to think that, if other parts of the Course such as the Text are written with greater complexity, there must be good reason for it. As the review instructions themselves state, “We are now emphasizing the relationships among the first fifty of the ideas we have covered, and the cohesiveness of the thought system to which they are leading you” (W-pI.rI.In.6:4). What better way to gain a sense of the cohesiveness of the thought system than to read through the entire review at one sitting? There are twenty pages in Review I, but with so much white space that it really amounts to little more than ten pages. The entire review can be read aloud in under thirty minutes; I know because I have recorded it on tape. (You might even want to try this yourself, if you have a tape recorder. I found that listening to the entire review repeatedly as I drove to and from work was a powerful learning tool.) Try to set aside a half hour some time during the day, and read the whole thing at a single sitting. If you read fast, then read it all two or

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three times. Try to focus, as the review suggests, on the relationships between the ideas, and the cohesiveness of the entire package.

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LESSON 60 • MARCH 1 Review of Lessons 46–50 “God is the Love in which I forgive.” “God is the strength in which I trust.” “There is nothing to fear.” “God’s Voice speaks to me all through the day.” “I am sustained by the Love of God.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To review the lessons and therefore let them sink in a notch deeper. Also, to see how interrelated they are and how cohesive the thought system is that they are leading you to. Exercise: As often as possible (suggestion: every hour on the hour), for at least two minutes. • Alone in a quiet place, read one of the five lessons and the related comments. Notice that the comments are written as if they are your own thoughts about the idea. Try to imagine that they are. It will help if you frequently insert your name. This will set you up for the next phase, in which you generate similar thoughts of your own. • Close your eyes and think about the idea and the comments. Think particularly about the central point of the commentary paragraph. Reflect on it. Let related thoughts come (utilizing the training you’ve received in that practice). If your mind wanders, repeat the idea and then get back to your reflection. This is the same basic exercise as in Lesson 50, in which you actively think about ideas in order to let them sink more deeply into your mind. Remarks: • At the beginning and end of the day read all five lessons. • Thereafter, cover one lesson per practice period, in no particular order. • Cover each lesson at least once. • Beyond that, concentrate on a particular lesson if it appeals to you most.

Commentary My dearest friends,

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I address you that way because of the line in this lesson, “I will recognize in everyone my dearest Friend” (3:5). I was so struck by that line once that, for about four or five months, every letter I wrote (except to those who probably would not understand) I began with, “My dearest friend [name].” No wonder that the Course tells us, “There are no strangers in God’s creation” (T-3.III.7:7). My dearest Friend is in everyone; everyone is, in reality, that Friend. That is their real, albeit hidden, Identity. Speaking of “those who accept the Holy Spirit’s purpose as their own” (T-20.II.5:3), the Text says, “He sees no strangers; only dearly loved and loving friends” (T-20.II.5:5). Imagine seeing the world in that way. Imagine being in love with everyone you met, recognizing each and every one as a dearly loved friend, and knowing that in their heart of hearts they are wholly loving, as you are. Imagine being surrounded by love like that. This is the Course’s vision of the real world, the world attained through full forgiveness (see T-17.II.5:1; T-30.VI.3:3). “Forgiveness is the means by which I will recognize my innocence” (1:4). And when I recognize my innocence, I will no longer see anything to forgive (1:3). I will see only dearly loved and loving friends. As long as I see something else, something less than that, there is forgiveness work to be done. We are here for one purpose and one purpose only: to forgive the world so completely that we absolutely fall in love with everyone and everything; anything less than that is incomplete forgiveness. What limits our love except some form of unforgiveness? Only by so completely removing every barrier to love will we come to know the fullness of the love we are. The strength of God in me enables me to do this. As I forgive I am remembering that strength in myself, a strength I have forgotten. “I forgive all things because I feel the stirring of His strength in me” (2:5). God’s Voice guides me on this path of forgiveness, step by careful step; there is really nowhere else to go. “I am walking steadily on toward truth” (4:4). Sometimes my footsteps seem to falter, but I cannot really go astray. God’s Love sustains me. Through listening to its stirrings deep within myself, I come to remember that I am His Son. Our footsteps have not been unwavering, and doubts have made us walk uncertainly and slowly on the road this course sets forth. But now we hasten on, for we approach a greater certainty, a firmer purpose and a surer goal.

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Steady our feet, our Father. Let our doubts be quiet and our holy minds be still, and speak to us. We have no words to give to You. We would but listen to Your Word, and make it ours. Lead our practicing as does a father lead a little child along a way he does not understand. Yet does he follow, sure that he is safe because his father leads the way for him. So do we bring our practicing to You. And if we stumble, You will raise us up. If we forget the way, we count upon Your sure remembering. We wander off, but You will not forget to call us back. Quicken our footsteps now, that we may walk more certainly and quickly unto You. And we accept the Word You offer us to unify our practicing, as we review the thoughts that You have given us. (W-pI.rV.In.1:5–3:6)

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LESSON 61 • MARCH 2 “I am the light of the world.”

Practice instructions Purpose: “A beginning step in accepting your real function on earth” (3:2). This lesson is a continuation of what began in Lesson 37 (“My holiness blesses the world”), which contained “the first glimmerings of your true function in the world, or why you are here” (WpI.37.1:1). Exercise: As many as possible (suggestion: every hour on the hour), for no more than one or two minutes. • Tell yourself, “I am the light of the world. That is my only function. That is why I am here.” • Then think about these statements. Let related thoughts come. If you can, close your eyes for this. If your mind wanders (rather, when it wanders), repeat the idea. This is the same kind of practice that you did in Lesson 50 and throughout Review I. By actively thinking about the idea, you make it your own. Remarks: Begin and end the day with a practice period. These can be longer than the rest if you want. These practices will make your day one that begins, ends, and is filled throughout with affirmation of the truth about yourself. This is the day the Workbook is leading us into, one in which we practice morning, evening, and throughout the day. This is the first of the Workbook’s seven “giant strides”—giant steps ahead in your journey home. Try to make today exactly that. Use it “to build a firm foundation” (7:4) for the giant strides to come.

Commentary Probably most days, if you’re like me, you don’t feel like the light of the world. Some days I feel more like the last dying ember in the fireplace. But this lesson isn’t talking about how I feel; it is talking about what I am in truth. “It does not refer to any of the characteristics with which you have endowed yourself. It refers to you as you were created by God” (1:5–6). It isn’t about who I think I am; it is about my original design specs, straight from the hand of the Creator. In traditional Christian teaching, Jesus is the light of the world and the rest of us are the blind people who need his light. To say, “I am the light of the world” can seem like quite a stretch. It can seem arrogant,

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full of pride, even egotistical. Perhaps even delusional. Actually, refusing to say it is what is egotistical. What is more arrogant, when God has made you the light of the world, than to say, “Sorry, Boss, You were wrong. I’m really a poor miserable sinner”? You and I are here to be conduits of God’s light. Being the light of the world is our only function, and the only reason we are here (5:3– 5). We are bringers of salvation; there is no other way for salvation to come into this world except through us—all of us! The lesson calls our acceptance and practice of this idea “a beginning step in accepting your real function on earth” (3:2), “a giant stride” (3:3), “a positive assertion of your right to be saved” (3:4). It isn’t just another lesson; this is a big deal! Getting off the “poor me, I need to be saved” bandwagon and onto the “bringer of salvation” track can be a major turning point for us. The general tenor of the idea is reflected in the old sixties saying, “Are you part of the problem or part of the solution?” At first it may seem that this idea asks too much of you. “Who, me save the world? Are you kidding? I can’t even save myself!” But that belief about ourselves is exactly where our problem lies. Try giving love to someone today and you will find that you can bring light into someone else’s life. Do this enough times and your opinion about yourself will begin to change. Your true sense of self-worth as a loving being will begin to blossom. In giving help, you will be helping yourself. In recognizing that being helpful, giving love, spreading kindness, and showing mercy is the very reason you are here, you affirm the divinity of your Source; you acknowledge yourself as a child of God.

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LESSON 62 • MARCH 3 “Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world.”

Practice instructions Exercise: As frequently as possible (suggestion: every hour on the hour), for one to two minutes. • Tell yourself (with eyes closed if the situation permits): “Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world. I would fulfill my function that I may be happy.” • Then use the practice that you have been doing recently: Think about these statements (in this case, dwelling particularly on the happiness your function will bring you). Let related thoughts come. If your mind wanders, repeat the idea and add, “I would remember this because I want to be happy.” This extra thought will motivate your mind to come back to and stay on focus. Remarks: Notice the emphasis on having a happy day. This is so much of why we practice, because it will help make our day happy. It will also bring happiness to people around us, and even to people in distant times and places! This is not a selfish practice we are doing. Notice also that this lesson mentions the Workbook’s formula of practicing morning, evening, and throughout the day (4:1). We can assume today that, like yesterday, we can make the morning and evening practice periods longer if we like. Finally, note why it is that related thoughts can flow freely: because “your heart will recognize these words, and in your mind is the awareness they are true” (4:5). Related thoughts, in other words, come from a deep well in our mind, in which we already understand these ideas. They draw that well’s wisdom up to the surface and make it our own.

Commentary What does the light of the world do? It forgives. As the light of the world, my function isn’t to teach people new ideas, to straighten out their misunderstandings, or to be their knight in shining armor. My function is simply to forgive them. Forgiveness is the demonstration that you are the light of the world. Through your forgiveness does the truth about yourself return to your memory. (1:3–4)

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Forgiveness not only brings light into the minds of those around me, it enables me to remember the light in myself; it reminds me of the truth about myself. Forgiveness is what saves me. Doing what I am here to do reminds me of what I really am. Why? Because “illusions about yourself and the world are one” (2:1). If I see the illusion of sin in a brother, I am really seeing my own illusions about myself. When I forgive that brother, I am forgiving myself, seeing through the illusion that has obscured the truth about both him and me. When thoughts of attack are replaced with thoughts of forgiveness, I am replacing death with life. Forgiveness is the means the Course sets forth as our way out of hell, because the hell we are in was made by our judgments and thoughts of attack. Forgiving calls upon the Christ in me, while attacking calls upon my own weakness. As I call upon the Christ in me, the Christ comes forward, and I begin to recognize the Christ as my true Self. Forgiveness restores “the invulnerability and power God gave His Son” (3:5). Where is forgiveness needed? Not just in what we think of as the big things: betrayal, deceit, or obvious intent to harm. Any thought in my mind that separates me from another and makes me different is a thought of attack, and needs to be replaced with forgiveness. Any thought that belittles another person, demeans them, sees them as “less than,” views them as less worthy of love for any reason, pushes them away, views them with dislike, sees myself gaining at their loss, wishes for their injury or loss in some way, or lacks faith in the love in their heart, is a thought of attack, and needs to be replaced with forgiveness. That is my function, today and every day. Let me release the world from the bondage in which I have placed it. Let me lift my judgment from it, and so rediscover the miraculous truth of my own divine nature by my willingness to see it in everyone around me.

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LESSON 63 • MARCH 4 “The light of the world brings peace to every mind through my forgiveness.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To get in touch with your power to bring peace to everyone, to recognize the means by which you can do this, and to experience the happiness that comes from this. Exercise: As often as you can (suggestion: every hour on the hour), for one to two minutes. • Tell yourself, “The light of the world brings peace to every mind through my forgiveness. I am the means God has appointed for the salvation of the world.” • Then do the practice that you’ve been doing recently: Think about these statements and let related thoughts come. If your mind wanders, repeat the idea. Remarks: The remarks about closing your eyes hold for all the shorter practice periods in the Workbook (except the open-eyed ones). The principle is simple. One the one hand, you’ll benefit more if you close your eyes, because it will allow for greater focus. On the other hand, if you wait until the situation lets you close your eyes, that will hurt the frequency of your practice. So close your eyes if the situation permits; if not, go ahead and practice with eyes open. Just like yesterday we are told to be happy to practice morning, evening, and throughout the day. That is because this practice will get us in touch with our function, and our function is the source of our happiness. As with Lesson 61, the practice periods at the beginning and end of the day can be longer if you like.

Commentary Have you ever been the recipient of real forgiveness? There is nothing quite so liberating, nothing that eases the mind so much, as being truly forgiven. If I think I may have offended someone or injured them by what I have said or done, and they turn around and truly forgive me, letting me know that they were not hurt, that they understand me and see me in a light perhaps even better than I could see myself, it brings incredible peace to my mind. It relieves the pangs of guilt. There is a sense of love for the other person, a joy that our intimacy has not been impaired but perhaps even improved.

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You and I have the power to bring that kind of peace to every mind. That is what our function is. We can allow this to be done through us (1:2). What a marvelous purpose this gives to our lives— bringing peace to every mind through our forgiveness. We can liberate everyone around us from the hell of their own guilt. “Accept no trivial purpose or meaningless desire in its place, or you will forget your function and leave the Son of God in hell” (2:4). When we accept a lesser purpose, we inevitably forget the primary one. For instance, we may be trying to get someone to act in a way that pleases us—for our personal pleasure. We may have expectations about what someone should do or say. These lesser purposes can cause us to completely overlook our true function of forgiveness, and instead heap more guilt upon the person when they fail to meet our expectations. We need to practice this idea diligently, as often as we can, to reinforce it in our minds. “I am the means God has appointed for the salvation of the world” (3:5). Forgiveness flows through me and brings peace to every mind I encounter today; let me remember to not block the flow.

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LESSON 64 • MARCH 5 “Let me not forget my function.” Practice instructions Purpose: To remind yourself to constantly choose your happiness by choosing to fulfill your function. To resist the temptation to let the world you see lull you into forgetting your function. Longer: At least one, for ten to fifteen minutes. • Close your eyes and repeat these thoughts: “Let me not forget my function. Let me not try to substitute mine for God’s. Let me forgive and be happy.” • Then do again the recent practice of reflecting on these statements. Think about them. Let related thoughts come (it will help if you remember how important your function is to you and others). Remarks: It is easy for lengthy reflection like this to turn into a big mind wandering-fest, for the simple reason that “you are not proficient in the mind discipline that it requires” (7:2). So be on the lookout for irrelevant thoughts. When they come, repeat the idea (you might even want to repeat all three statements). Even if you have to do so twenty times, that is better than just letting your mind float off into never-never land. Frequent reminders: Frequently, for several minutes. At different times, use one or the other of the following: 1. A shorter version of the longer practice. Repeat the three “let me” statements and then think only about them. Your mind will wander; when it does, repeat the idea to bring it back. 2. Repeat the same statements, then look slowly and unselectively about you, saying, “This is the world it is my function to save.”

Commentary Lesson 62 told me that forgiveness is my function, so this lesson expresses a determination not to forget what I am here for: to forgive the world, bringing peace to every mind. What causes me to forget? The entire world. Everything my body’s eyes see is “a form of temptation, since this was the purpose of the body itself” (2:1). The ego made the world and the body with a certain purpose in mind: 1. To obscure my function of forgiveness

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2. To justify my forgetting my function 3. To entice me to abandon God and His Son by taking form in a body The ego’s continuation depends on my identifying with a bodily form. The “wickedness” and “incompletion” of the world around me justify my unwillingness to forgive. My involvement in the world, making it the scope of my goals and even my life, obscures my true function (in Heaven, creating; here, forgiving). The ego’s plan seems to have worked pretty well. The Course’s cosmology is fairly unusual and extreme. As it says later in the Workbook, the Course’s teaching is that “the world was made as an attack on God” (W-pII.3.2:1). It was not created by God but made by the ego to abandon God, taking on physical form to obscure our spiritual reality. If it seems difficult for me to accept this understanding, I am not alone. The Course is quite aware this is a difficult concept. But when I begin to detect the way my mind works, it becomes a little easier to accept, because I begin to notice ways in which my mind uses the world, and uses everything I see with my eyes, to maintain the illusion of separation. As I am moved to forgive, I also find something in my mind resisting with tooth and nail, trying to justify withholding forgiveness, trying to get me simply to forget forgiveness entirely. And I begin to recognize that what the Course is saying here bears a curious similarity to what is going on within my mind. Perhaps what it is saying, then, expresses truth; a truth I am perhaps reluctant to accept, but which seems to be borne out by my own experience. The Holy Spirit has another purpose, however, for everything in the world. “To the Holy Spirit, the world is a place where you learn to forgive yourself what you think of as your sins” (2:3). That’s what we’re doing as we forgive “others.” Fulfilling this function is what brings us happiness (I can testify to that!). The connection between forgiveness and happiness is interesting. If you think about it for a moment, you’ll realize that when you are unforgiving, you are unhappy about something. To say, “I’m not happy about the way you are acting in our relationship,” for instance, is equivalent to saying, “I have judged you and found you wanting; I am unforgiving.” To forgive someone is to be happy with them. To forgive means to let go of your justification for being unhappy. When you forgive, “happiness becomes inevitable” (4:2). And “there is no other way” (4:3). Unforgiveness is precisely a choice to remain unhappy; without forgiveness you cannot be truly happy. That is the

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reasoning behind this statement: “Therefore, every time you choose whether or not to fulfill your function [that is, to forgive], you are really choosing whether or not to be happy” (4:4). The lesson then goes on to point out that every single decision we make in a day can all be boiled down to this simple choice: Will I be happy, or unhappy? When you can begin to view your choices in life from this perspective, the choice becomes no choice at all. Who would knowingly choose unhappiness? When you begin to notice yourself actually doing that, you begin to understand why the Course refers to us so often as “insane.” Let me not forget my function. Let me not try to substitute mine for God’s. Let me forgive and be happy. (6:2–4) Let’s try to remember to do the actual practice today. (I have to confess, I’ve been skimping on the practice.) One thing to notice is the ten to fifteen minute practice period that is called for today; that’s something new. If nothing else, try to fit that one in.

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LESSON 65 • MARCH 6 “My only function is the one God gave me.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To let go of your usual goals, even if only for a little while, so you can focus on accepting the function God gave you as your only function. Longer: One time, for ten to fifteen minutes. • Repeat the idea, then close your eyes and repeat it again. • Watch your mind carefully for what you would consider normal thoughts passing across it. Observe each one dispassionately (as you were taught to do in earlier lessons) and say, “This thought reflects a goal that is preventing me from accepting my only function.” When you start to run out of such thoughts, try for another minute or so to catch any remaining thoughts, though don’t strain to find them. The point of this phase is to clear your mind of your usual goals and functions. • Then say, “On this clean slate let my true function be written for me”—or words to that effect. Be willing to have your selfassigned functions be replaced by God’s. • Repeat the idea again and spend the remainder of the practice period doing the now familiar practice of thinking about the idea and letting related thoughts come. Having cleared out your usual functions, you are now trying “to understand and accept” (3:1) your true function, to actively reflect on it so that it becomes more your own. Focus particularly on the importance and desirability of your function, and the resolution and relief it will bring. When wandering thoughts arise, I suggest dispelling them with the line you have just used: “This thought reflects a goal...” Remarks: When he says that you need to pick a time for the longer practice period, one that you’ll stick to today and for several days to come, that may very well sound threatening. Yet it makes perfect sense. You are on the road to giving your whole life to your true function. Giving it one time during the day, a time that is devoted only to it, a time that is like an unmoving boulder in the flowing stream of your trivial pursuits, is a start, a foot in the door. If you can’t let your true function have even a foot in the door, how will you ever reach the point where you give your whole life to it? Frequent reminders: At least one per hour.

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Sometimes use the first form, at others times, the second: 1. Close your eyes and say, “My only function is the one God gave me. I want no other and I have no other.” 2. Look about you and say the same line, realizing that what you see will look completely different when you truly accept what you are saying. (I suggest giving this a try now and seeing the effect it has on you.)

Commentary What I noticed as I read was the last sentence of the first paragraph: The full acceptance of salvation as your only function necessarily entails two phases; the recognition of salvation as your function, and the relinquishment of all the other goals you have invented for yourself. (1:5) Some of us may be yet having trouble with the first phase, recognizing salvation as our function. It isn’t a simple matter. To say, “My job is to heal and be healed” requires a major shift of mind for most people. To see ourselves as the light of the world is not something that comes easily to us. That is why the preceding few lessons have dwelt on that fact, and why it will come up again in later lessons. This lesson advances beyond simply recognizing that salvation is our function; it adds the thought that this is our only function. It makes it very plain that for this to be so, every other goal must be relinquished. God gave us this one goal, and no other. The others we invented for ourselves, and every other goal in some way competes with and detracts from this one. As I go through my day, I watch how my “trivial purposes and goals” (4:3) interfere with my pursuit of this one goal. I can watch it in the simple practice proposed for the next several days: taking ten to fifteen minutes to try to understand and accept the idea for the day. The lesson asks me to arrange my day so that I have this time set apart for God. Setting apart these fifteen minutes will necessitate setting aside every other goal for those minutes. It will bring up the very issue addressed by this lesson: the way in which my other goals compete with the goal given me by God. In my understanding of the Course, the matter of recognizing my true goal can come fairly early in the journey I am on; the process of relinquishing all my lesser goals until I have no goal but God can take

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a fairly long time. At the start, we have no idea how many competitive goals we have set up for ourselves. It takes time to discover and relinquish them all. Today is but a beginning, but the more seriously I take this idea, the more effective today’s practice can be.

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LESSON 66 • MARCH 7 “My happiness and my function are one.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To accept that your happiness and your God-given function are not only connected, but are actually the same thing, regardless of different appearances; and to accept that they are different in every way from all of the functions your ego has given you. Longer: One time, for ten to fifteen minutes. • Spend the time actively reflecting on the following logical syllogism: “God gives me only happiness [premise 1]. He has given my function to me [premise 2]. Therefore my function must be happiness [conclusion].” Notice how the conclusion logically follows from the premises, so that if the premises are right, the conclusion has to be. • Therefore, spend a while thinking about the first premise (“God gives me only happiness”). Use paragraph 6 as a guide. It says that, in the end, you must either accept the first premise or accept that God is evil. • Then spend some time thinking about the second premise (“He has given my function to me”). Use paragraphs 7 and 8 as a guide. They say that your function must have been given by either God or the ego, but the ego does not really give gifts. It is an illusion that offers illusions of gifts. • Then spend some time thinking about how your life has reflected an alternative syllogism, which goes something like this: “My ego has given me many functions (think about some of those). None of them has given me happiness (reflect on this). Therefore, my ego never gives me happiness.” Isn’t this the only logical conclusion? Doesn’t this conclusion make you want to choose the function God has given you instead? • Finally, try to pour all of this reflection into an acceptance of the conclusion (“Therefore my function must be happiness”). Use the reflection to bring you to a point where you really embrace the conclusion. Remarks: This lesson is yet another giant stride (our first was Lesson 61), but it will only be a giant step forward for you if you really give your mind to it. So do so, for your own sake. Give the longer practice your full concentration, and give the shorter practice your frequency. Frequent reminders: Two per hour, for one minute or less.

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Say, “My happiness and my function are one, because God has given me both.” Repeating this slowly and thinking about it will make all the difference.

Commentary I find this lesson interesting in the way it makes use of ordinary logic, applied to extraordinary ideas. The longer practice period is supposed to be spent in thinking about the premises in the syllogism given in paragraph 5 (5:7; 9:1). In other words, the lesson asks us to test out the logic of its proposal with our minds. Quite evidently the Course sees a good deal of value in thinking and reasoning; it is not a Course in mindlessness, as some people seem to believe. Nor is it only a course in experience. It is solidly laced with reasoning, and expects us to know how to use that faculty of our minds. I find that a good aid in this kind of practice is writing down the ideas that come to me as I do it. The central idea today is one we’ve seen before: happiness and my function are, at the core, the same thing. The two premises are fairly simple, especially the first: God gives me only happiness. If God is a God worthy of my allegiance, a God of love, this must be so. Why follow a god who makes me unhappy? If God gives unhappiness, He must be evil (6:5). And if God is evil I may as well quit now; I’ll never find happiness living in the clutches of a sadistic god, who gives his creations unhappiness. Second, God has given my function to me. This is a little less obvious. “Function” could be understood as meaning “nature.” In simple terms, God created me, and in so doing, defined what I am. What I am defines what I do. What alternative is there? If God did not define me, what did? The only alternative is the ego (8:3). Or, I might say, I made myself (which is really the same thing). But how can anything create itself? What created its power to create? Is it really possible that the ego made me, or I defined myself? No. Therefore this second premise must also be true: God has given my function to me. Now if God gives me only happiness, and God gave me my function, what is the logical conclusion? My function must be happiness. My reason for being is to be happy. Fulfilling my function is what brings me happiness. If we think about all the ways we’ve tried to find happiness following our egos—as we are instructed to think about, here in the lesson—we must admit, if we are perfectly honest, that none of them have worked.

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The lesson is trying to bring us to the point where we make a choice, the choice between madness and truth, between listening to the ego or to the Holy Spirit. It is asking us to realize that everything the ego tells us is a lie, and that only the truth is true; only what God has given us has reality. This lesson is the second one called a “giant stride” (10:5). The first was Lesson 61. We’ll see the term again in Lessons 94, 130, 135, and 194. Lesson 61 told us, “I am the light of the world,” which is “a beginning step in accepting your real function on earth….a giant stride toward taking your rightful place in salvation” (W-pI.61.3:2–3). We are light-bearers, designed by God to beam His light to the universe; that is our function. Accepting that is a giant step, a strong beginning. Now, we are told, “My happiness and my function are one.” Bringing light to the world is what happiness is; being the light of the world is fulfilling our function, and fulfilling our function is happiness.

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LESSON 67 • MARCH 8 “Love created me like Itself.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To experience the blazing light of your changeless reality, if only for a moment. To redefine God as Love and realize you are included in His definition of Himself. Longer: One time, for ten to fifteen minutes. • Repeat the idea. • Then spend a few minutes adding related thoughts, along the following lines: “Holiness created me holy. Helpfulness created me helpful.” Use only attributes that fit the Course’s teachings about God. • For a brief interval, try to let go of all thoughts. • The remainder is a meditation exercise, using the method you were taught in the 40s: 1. Reach past the thick cloud of all your self-images to the light of your true Self. Sink past illusions about you and reach down to the truth in you. 2. When you get distracted, repeat the idea. If this is not enough, add more related thoughts, as in the earlier phase. 3. Hold in mind the confidence that the light of your true Self is there and can be reached, and that even if you don’t reach it now, you will succeed in bringing that experience closer. Frequent reminders: Four or five per hour, maybe more. Repeat the idea. As you do, be aware that this is not your tiny voice telling you this, but the Voice of truth telling you Who you really are. I recommend repeating it once in this fashion now, so you can see the effect it has. Remarks: The comment in 5:2 is very important. The 60s and 70s really focus on frequency, and this sentence explains why that is so crucial. You need to frequently practice the truth because you so frequently practice illusion. Specifically, “your mind is so preoccupied with false self-images” (5:2). Contained in each normal thought is a false self-image. That is why you need to inject as many thoughts as you can that contain the truth about you.

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Commentary The Course spends a disproportionate amount of space telling us what we are, how we were created like God, Who created us, and how that reality is “unchanged and unchangeable” (2:1). Lesson 229 virtually duplicates today’s thought: “Love, Which created me, is what I am.” Review V has us repeat, “God is but Love, and therefore so am I” every day for ten days. And then there are all the lessons on the theme “I am as God created me.” There are three lessons with that direct topic (the only lesson given more than once in the same words, in 94, 110, and 162); several others in which the idea is repeated (132, 139, 237, and 260); and twenty review lessons (201 to 220) in which we repeat the words “I am still as God created me” daily. Evidently the Course thinks this idea is worth repeating! In fact, today’s lesson tells us exactly why this thought is so important, and why repetition of it is so necessary: It will be particularly helpful today to practice the idea for the day as often as you can. You need to hear the truth about yourself as frequently as possible, because your mind is so preoccupied with false self-images. Four or five times an hour, and perhaps even more, it would be most beneficial to remind yourself that Love created you like Itself. Hear the truth about yourself in this. (5:1–4) We need to hear the truth about ourselves as often as we can because we have taught ourselves a false self-image, and we have taught ourselves very, very well. “Teach only love, for that is what you are” (T-6.I.13:2) is one of the most famous sayings in the Course, and emphasizes the same thing: What we are is Love, because Love created us like Itself. How many of us, if asked, “What are you?” would find the word “love” springing immediately to our minds? For most of us, to think of ourselves as being love and only love is, to be kind, a stretch. We may think we have some love in us, but to think that Love is what we are? Not hardly. That’s why we need to hear it as often as possible, why we need to repeat the idea today four or five times an hour or more during the day. That’s something like eighty times today, if we are awake sixteen hours. Love is what I am. That is why I am the light of the world. That is why I am the world’s savior, and why the Christ in everyone looks to me for salvation—because what I am is the salvation of the world

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(1:2–5). How differently would I live today if I knew this about myself? Notice that the lesson does not expect us to “get” this idea all at once. If we were expected to grasp it right away, we wouldn’t have to repeat it eighty times. All we are looking for is to “realize fully, if only for a moment, that it is the truth” (1:6, emphasis mine). Love is in us as our true Self, and we are attempting to get in touch with the Love within ourselves (3:2–3). We may not contact It directly today, but even the effort is worth it, although we may not feel we have succeeded: “Be confident that you will do much today to bring that awareness nearer, whether you feel you have succeeded or not” (4:4). Some day, though, some time, we will succeed; perhaps even today. It’s inevitable because we cannot hide forever from what we are, we cannot escape from what is within us. At some point it will happen: “You will succeed in going…through the interval of thoughtlessness to the awareness of a blazing light in which you recognize yourself as Love created you” (4:3). “You were created by Love like Itself” (6:4).

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LESSON 68 • MARCH 9 “Love holds no grievances.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To feel the profound sense of peace and safety that comes from being free of grievances. This will provide the motivation you need to free yourself of them more and more. Longer: One time, for ten to fifteen minutes. • Search your mind for those you hold major grievances against, then for those you hold seemingly minor grievances against. Notice how no one is completely exempt, and how alone this has made you feel. • Resolve to see them all as friends. Say to each one in turn: “I would see you as my friend, that I may remember you are part of me and come to know myself.” Note the progression through three stages (friend/part of me/know myself). Try to mean each stage. • For the remainder of the practice period, think of yourself as being at peace with a world that is truly your friend, a world that loves and protects you, and that you love in return. Try to actually feel safety surrounding you like a blanket, hovering over you like wings of an angel, and holding you up like solid rock beneath your feet. • Conclude by saying, “Love holds no grievances. When I let all my grievances go I will know I am perfectly safe.” Frequent reminders: Several (at least three) per hour. Say, “Love holds no grievances. I would wake to my Self by laying all my grievances aside and wakening in Him.” Response to temptation: Whenever you feel a grievance against anyone. Quickly apply the idea in this form: “Love holds no grievances. Let me not betray my Self.” The idea, of course, is that, because your Self is Love, holding grievances is an act of Self-betrayal. Think about that.

Commentary This lesson is a powerful teaching on the effect that holding grievances has on our minds and our thinking.

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To hold a grievance is to wish harm on someone; it is, whether we think of it that way or not, to “dream of hatred” (2:5). Some of us— perhaps most of us—have, at times, literally dreamed of revenge on someone we perceive as a victimizer. We have, possibly, consciously wished someone were dead. Probably, however, we have repressed conscious awareness of such thoughts and have deliberately forgotten we had them. Yet even “minor” grievances are the same thing, just in milder form. To hold a grievance is to feel you have been wronged, and the victimizer deserves to be punished for his or her wrongdoing. To wish someone would “get what s/he deserves” is no less hatred than to wish them dead. “Love holds no grievances.” Holding a grievance is the converse of love; love and grievances are mutually exclusive. Yesterday’s lesson taught us that “Love created me like Itself.” To hold a grievance, then, is to deny that truth; it is an assertion that I am something other than love. We cannot know our Self as Love if we hold any grievances because holding a grievance is teaching us the exact opposite. “Perhaps you do not yet fully realize just what holding grievances does to your mind” (1:5). The teaching in the next several lines is meaty. Our Source is Love, and we are created like that Source. When we hold a grievance, we seem to be different from our Source, and therefore seem to be cut off from Him (1:6). We are not Love, and God is; we must be separate. However, the mind cannot quite conceive of a source and its effect as being totally different; therefore, to cope with the logical dilemma, our mind conceives of God in our own imagined image: “It makes you believe that He is like what you think you have become” (1:7). We think God holds grievances, and dream up religions that speak of “sinners in the hands of an angry God.” We make an image of a vengeful, punitive god, and cower in terror away from his presence, fearful of our very existence. The effects of grievances do not stop with seeming to split us off from God, making us different and separate, and then remaking God Himself into a terrifying, vindictive demon. Within us, our true Self seems to fall asleep and thus to disappear from active participation, while the part of us that “weaves illusions in its sleep appears to be awake” (2:1). We lose sight of our Self and imagine we are something else, a grievance-holding, petty “self,” angry at the world. “Can all this arise from holding grievances? Oh, yes!” (2:2–3) We have redefined God in our own image. We suffer guilt. We have forgotten who we are. All this is inevitable for those that hold grievances.

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We have not realized what damage we are doing to our own minds by holding grievances. This is why the Course teaches that forgiveness is not something we do for the sake of others; we do it for our own well-being. It may not seem possible to give up all grievances; that’s understood by the lesson (4:2). It isn’t really a matter of possible or impossible, however; it’s just a matter of motivation. We can give up any grievance; the question is, do we want to? So this lesson sets out to increase our motivation by asking us to perform an experiment. Basically, it asks us to “try to find out how you would feel without them” (4:4). The idea is, quite simply, that if we can get a taste of what it feels like to be without grievances, we will prefer the new feeling. “Try it; you’ll like it!” as the commercial says. And once we are motivated, once we want to let grievances go—we will. Our minds have that much power. Notice the use of the words “trying” and “try” in paragraph 6. We are basically doing an exercise in imagination here. Imagine being at peace with everyone. Imagine feeling completely safe, surrounded by love and loving all that surrounds you. Imagine—even just for an instant—that nothing can harm you; that you are invulnerable and totally secure, and that what’s more, there is nothing that wants to harm you even if it could. If you can “succeed even by ever so little, there will never be a problem in motivation ever again” (4:5). Once you get a taste of what this state of mind feels like you are going to want it. Because it feels really good! You are going to become willing to do whatever it takes to experience this more and more, for longer and longer, until it becomes permanent. I want to emphasize that today’s lesson isn’t telling us, “Get rid of all your grievances.” It isn’t laying down a law and making us guilty for having grievances. It is simply trying to motivate us to want to let them go, first by showing us how much pain (illusory harm, but real in our experience) our grievances are bringing to our minds, and then by getting us to experience what a mind without grievances feels like. It is getting us to recognize that holding a grievance is a betrayal—not of God, not of anyone else, but a betrayal of ourselves as Love. Grievances make us believe we are something we are not, and that we are not what we really are.

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LESSON 69 • MARCH 10 “My grievances hide the light of the world in me.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To lift the veil of grievances that has hidden the light of the world in you, so that you can experience that light and let it shine salvation onto the world. This is yet another attempt to experience the light in you (see W-pI.41.5:3 and W-pI.44.3:1). Longer: One time, for ten to fifteen minutes. • Spend several minutes cultivating the heightened attitude that is so crucial to Course-based meditation. Think about what you are about to attempt, about its importance to you and to the world. You are trying to lift the veil and get in touch with the light of the world, so you can hold it up for all to see and be blessed by. You are trying to reach your only need, your only function, goal, and purpose. Be determined to reach it. • Then, with eyes closed, let go of all your thoughts. Picture your true mind as a vast sphere of radiant light, totally engulfed by a layer of dark clouds (your grievances). From your vantage point outside the sphere, all you can see are clouds. • Now begin the meditation. As before, you can see it as having three aspects: 1. The basic motion is one of traveling through the clouds and into the light. “Reach out and touch them in your mind. Brush them aside with your hand; feel them resting on your cheeks and forehead and eyelids as you go through them” (6:3–4). 2. If your mind wanders, repeat the idea and then continue your journey through the clouds. 3. Most of all, hold that heightened attitude you cultivated in the first phase, an attitude of desire (remember how much you want to reach the light), determination (be determined to get there), and confidence (realize you cannot fail, because this is in accord with God’s Will). • If you do your part properly, the power of God will do the rest. You will feel His power lifting you up and carrying you into the light. Frequent reminders: As often as possible (suggestion: several times an hour).

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Say, “My grievances hide the light of the world in me. I cannot see what I have hidden. Yet I want to let it be revealed to me [by God], for my salvation and the salvation of the world.” Response to temptation: Whenever you are tempted to hold a grievance. Say, “If I hold this grievance the light of the world will be hidden from me.”

Commentary I am the light of the world, but the light cannot shine out because my grievances hide it. When I let my grievances go, the light is released, and releases my brother and myself. My job with everyone I meet is to share my salvation with him. Today’s practice is another time of attempting to “reach the light in you” (2:1), or in other words, to become aware of my Self as God created It, wholly loving and wholly lovable. Notice how the form of this practice is similar to what we’ve seen before; it is a pattern that is repeated often in the Workbook in different forms. In general, the pattern is one of attempting to move past, or move through, or let go of the thoughts that normally occupy my mind, settling down in deep stillness, and reaching beyond my surface thoughts to something deep within myself, a Self I am not normally aware of. This is a Course method of meditation. It is one of the tools given to us by the Workbook, and should be learned and used even after Workbook practice per se has ended. What we are trying to reach is “dearer to us than all else” (3:1). Reaching it, finding it, and releasing it to the world is our only purpose and only function on earth. “Learning salvation is our only goal” (3:4). I love the poignant imagery of this sentence: “We are trying to let the veil be lifted, and to see the tears of God’s Son disappear in the sunlight” (2:5). Can you feel that tug with me, that longing to release the light of the world that is in you? There is a light that this world cannot give. Yet you can give it, as it was given you. And as you give it, it shines forth to call you from the world and follow it. For this light will attract you as nothing in this world can do. (T-13.VI.11:1–4)

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LESSON 70 • MARCH 11 “My salvation comes from me.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To realize that your salvation is not outside you, that both the sickness and the remedy are within, and that you are joined with God in wanting the remedy for yourself. Longer: Two times, for ten to fifteen minutes. • Repeat, “My salvation comes from me,” and add a statement to the effect that it does not come from outside you, such as “It cannot come from anywhere else.” • Close your eyes and for several minutes review external places in which you have sought salvation—people, possessions, situations, events, self-concepts. Say, “My salvation cannot come from any of these things [try to really see this]. My salvation comes from me and only from me.” • Then enter again into meditation, trying once more to travel through the clouds to the light in you. Use the same technique as you did yesterday (you may want to review those instructions). The difference today is that the clouds, rather than being your grievances, are the external things in which you’ve sought salvation. Since these cloud patterns are where your mind has been fixated, it may be challenging to not get stuck there. The particular method you use for getting past the clouds is not important; what is important is your desire and determination to get past them. One method you might find helpful is to imagine Jesus leading you by the hand through the clouds and into the light. He says that if you do this, it will be more than just your imagination. Remarks: Now that we are going up to two longer practice periods a day, he wants you to do the same thing as before—decide in advance when you’ll do the longer practice periods and then do your best to adhere to that decision. To refresh your mind about why this is important, read the “remarks” section in Lesson 65. Frequent reminders: Frequent. Say, “My salvation comes from me. Nothing outside of me can hold me back. Within me is the world’s salvation and my own.” While saying this, remember that only your own thoughts can hold you back. This leaves you in charge.

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Commentary The message of this lesson is really one of the central teachings of the Course. Guilt and salvation are in my own mind and nowhere else. “All guilt is solely an invention of your mind” (1:5). It is severely tempting to lay the blame for my problems somewhere outside of me. I instinctively shun taking responsibility for any of my problems, and the idea that all of them are in my mind and nowhere else seems devastating. However, consider the consequences of the alternative view: that the source of my problems and of my guilt lies outside of me. If that is the case, I am the helpless victim of these outside forces. I cannot do anything about them except to rant and rave at them, hurling invectives of blame and begging for mercy from uncaring powers. If, however, my problems lie solely in my own mind, then I am capable of doing something about them. In fact, only I can do anything about them, and nothing outside of me can prevent me from doing it. “Nothing outside of me can hold me back” (10:7). I am in complete control; my salvation comes from me and me alone. I am not dependent on anything outside myself, and therefore I am already free. The “cost” of recognizing that my salvation comes from me and nowhere else is that I have to give up any idea that the “cavalry” is going to show up to rescue me. “Nothing outside yourself can save you; nothing outside yourself can give you peace” (2:1). Nothing and nobody can do it for me. It’s up to me. My partner in romantic love isn’t going to do it for me. My wealth and position aren’t going to do it for me. My analyst isn’t going to do it for me, nor my guru. Not even Jesus will do it for me. The Course won’t do it for me. Any or all of these may support me, help me, encourage me; in the end, however, my salvation will come from myself, from the choices of my own mind. “Today’s idea places you in charge of the universe, where you belong because of what you are” (2:3). Awesome, and a bit frightening. I don’t want to believe I have that much power, but not believing it is what got me into this mess in the first place. Therein lies my sickness. Good news! God wants us to be healed and happy; so do we. Therefore our will is one with God’s. We have been choosing sickness but we don’t really want it, because it makes us unhappy. So we can agree with God and choose again, choose to be well rather than sick. In today’s exercise we picture ourselves pushing past the clouds again towards the light. Yesterday the clouds represented our grievances; today, they represent the things we have looked to for

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salvation. “You cannot find [salvation] in the clouds that surround the light, and it is in them you have been looking for it” (8:2). Oddly, objects of salvation and grievances are not all that different; a grievance against a brother is also an assertion that something in that brother is making me unhappy, which is also making him a potential source of salvation: I would be happy if he would change. To see salvation outside myself, or to see a grievance, are both means by which I give away my power and deny my sole responsibility for the universe of my mind. In the exercise of pushing past the clouds, we are told, “If it helps you, think of me holding your hand and leading you. And I assure you it will be no idle fantasy” (9:3–4). For some of us, it will be helpful to picture ourselves taking the hand of Jesus and being led through the clouds. For others, the picture would be more disconcerting than helpful; there is, perhaps, healing needed in our relationship with him before we could find that image appealing. I, for one, find it immensely helpful to envision one who has already been there and back, and who is willing to lead me through. He can’t do it for me, but he sure can help. Sometimes I think of Jesus as simply the part of my mind that has already wakened. And he is part of me, just as you are, and as everyone is. He is not some awesome divine being I cannot ever hope to be like. He is me, remembering. He is me, awake. To take his hand is to identify with the Christ in myself. Go for the light today!

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LESSON 71 • MARCH 12 “Only God’s plan for salvation will work.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To truly recognize that only God’s plan will work and to rejoice in this, for it means escape from the hopelessness of the ego’s plan and from the pointlessness of trying to follow both plans at once. Longer: Two times, for ten to fifteen minutes. • The first part is another exercise in thinking about the idea. Specifically, reflect on the two parts of the idea. Part one: God’s plan will work. According to recent lessons, God’s plan involves contacting the light within and letting go of grievances, both of which mean changing your mind. Part two: other plans won’t work. This lesson tells us that the ego’s plan involves seeking outside yourself for happiness, holding grievances when the outside doesn’t cooperate, and refusing to change your mind. Try to reach the conclusion, based on logic and your experience, that only God’s plan holds any hope of delivering actual happiness. • The second part is the Workbook’s first exercise in asking for guidance. Ask God to reveal His plan for you for today. Ask, “What would You have me do? Where would You have me go? What would You have me say, and to whom?” The willingness you are demonstrating just by doing this entitles you to an answer, so listen with confidence. “Refuse not to hear” (9:8). Once you ask, listen for the subtlest inner promptings—it doesn’t need to come in words. If you don’t hear anything, you might want to repeat the questions, making them more specific: “What would You have me do today?” or “Where would You have me go after lunch?” Frequent reminders: Six or seven per hour, for half a minute or less. Repeat the idea as an affirmation of where your salvation really comes from. Response to temptation: Whenever you are tempted to hold a grievance. Be alert all day to grievances. Respond to each one by saying, “Holding grievances is the opposite of God’s plan for salvation. And only His plan will work.”

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Commentary After being told yesterday that salvation comes from me and only from me, it is a little annoying the next day to be told that only God’s plan will work and that the plan I believe in (which is the ego’s) isn’t worth anything. It kind of seems like give and then take away, doesn’t it? But it isn’t really saying anything different. The ego’s plan involves looking for salvation outside of myself; God’s plan is wholly centered on my change of mind. In God’s plan, salvation comes from me; in the ego’s plan, it comes from any place except me. To the ego, salvation means “that if someone else spoke or acted differently, if some external circumstance or event were changed, you would be saved” (2:2). In the ego’s view, basically I’m okay, I am the innocent victim; the problem is with something outside of me. Whenever I am thinking, “If this were different, I’d be okay,” I am believing in the ego’s plan of salvation because I am demanding “the change of mind necessary for salvation…of everyone and everything except” myself (2:5). Don’t get tripped up by the religious-sounding phrase “plan for salvation.” It may remind you of some cheap Bible tract announcing “God’s plan of salvation.” What salvation boils down to here is simply, “I’d be okay; my problems would be solved.” And the ego’s plan, simply stated, is “If this were different, I would be saved.” In the ego’s plan, the mind’s only purpose is to figure out what has to change for me to be saved (which presupposes that it isn’t me that has to change). The ego will let us pick anything that won’t work (which includes everything in the class of things I am looking at— things outside of myself—since salvation comes from me and not something outside me). The ego has me look everywhere but in the one place in which the answer lies—my own mind. God’s plan for salvation is that I look for it where it is: in myself. For this plan to work, however, there is a condition: I have to look in myself and nowhere else. I can’t be looking for salvation in myself and from outside. This just divides my efforts between two different plans. There are two parts to today’s idea: 1) God’s plan will work, and 2) other plans (i.e. the plans I make up) won’t work. The second part, the lesson implies, may seem depressing. We may feel a flare of anger. In fact, what keeps us from simply accepting God’s plan is that we want to be right; we want our plans to work. We’d rather be right than happy, most of the time, although we don’t consciously think that. But the ego’s plan consists of holding grievances. Haven’t you ever had the experience of realizing that you

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could just let a grievance go and be happy, but that somehow it seems to feel good to be angry? You don’t want to let go. You’d rather be right than happy. The lesson is saying, “You can be saved simply by changing your mind. Nothing outside you has to change in order for you to be happy. You can simply choose happiness, right now.” And our response, typically? “Hell, no! I won’t be happy unless s/he changes first.” We’re holding on to our plan for salvation and refusing God’s. Surprisingly, the practice for today is not primarily about letting go of grievances, or looking within for salvation. It is about listening. It is about asking guidance from God. The emphasis is on taking our hands off the reins of our lives and giving them over to God. If we can learn to do that, we may begin to learn that His plans work better than our own.

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LESSON 72—MARCH 13 “Holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To stop attacking God’s plan by miscasting it as something it is not. To instead welcome it as it is, and realize it has already been accomplished in you. Longer: Two times, for ten to fifteen minutes. This is another exercise in trying to hear God’s Voice. This time you are asking God what His plan for salvation is, in order to replace your assumptions about what it is. Your grievances have depicted God in your image, as a separate body who feels wronged by the misbehavior of others (which includes your misbehavior). In this view, for you to become reconciled with Him, He demands (like any ego) that you sacrifice your pleasures on His behalf and pay the price for your misdeeds. Can’t you see that this view of His plan is why you’ve pushed it away? In the practice period, lay aside your assumptions about what God’s plan is and ask Him what it is. Ask, “What is salvation, Father? I do not know [try to mean this]. Tell me, that I may understand.” While listening, the attitude you hold is everything. Be confident that He will answer. “Be determined to hear” (12:6). When you feel your confidence wane, repeat the question again, consciously “remembering that you are asking of the infinite Creator of infinity, Who created you like Himself” (12:1). It may help to vary the wording of the sentences. For instance, “What is Your plan for salvation? I let go of my assumptions. I really want to understand it.” Listen for the faintest promptings. Trust what you hear. You may want to write it down afterwards. Frequent reminders: One, maybe two, per hour, for a minute or so. Say, “Holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation. Let me accept it instead. What is salvation, Father?” Then wait in silence and listen for His answer, preferably with eyes closed.

Commentary This is a long lesson, and a tough one. The scope of ideas presented here is daunting even to an experienced student of the Course (including me). There is no way I can give a detailed

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explanation of all the ideas in this brief commentary, so I am mainly going to focus on a few interesting ideas. The general thrust of the argument here is that holding grievances is always concerned in some way with the behavior of a body. Grievances thus confuse the person with his body; they are based on the assumption that bodies are what we are, and bodies are what God created. Since bodies die, God is a liar when He promises life. Death is the ultimate punishment for our sins, and that is what God gives us. The ego then comes into the picture in the role of “savior,” telling us, “Okay, you’re a body. So take the little you can get” (6:6). We see salvation as some kind of bodily function. Either we hate our bodies and humiliate them or we love them and try to exalt them (7:2–3). As long as “the body stands at the center of your concept of yourself, you are attacking God’s plan for salvation” (7:4). Why so? Because God’s plan has nothing to do with the body; it concerns the mind, the being you are. One primary thing the lesson is trying to get across is that we are not bodies. “It is the body that is outside us, and is not our concern. To be without a body is to be in our natural state” (9:2–3). This flies in the face of our common perception. The nearly universal assumption of man is that we are inside our bodies. To say the body is outside us seems to make no sense at all. But actually, it isn’t an entirely inconceivable idea. There is a way of understanding how our awareness can appear to be in the body when in fact it is elsewhere. Many of you are probably familiar with the idea of virtual reality (VR); that is, an artificial world you can experience via a computer. My son, Ben, is getting his Computer Science Ph.D. at Georgia Tech with a strong emphasis on virtual reality. Not long ago he visited VR laboratories in Japan, where they were experimenting with VR in connection with robots. He put on a VR helmet (so his eyes and ears now beheld and heard what was projected on the screen of the helmet or played through its speakers); he wore a VR sleeve on his arm and hand. These were connected to a robot, which had a camera and microphone on its “head” and whose mechanical arm and hand responded to the movements of Ben’s arm and hand. He was seeing what the robot “saw,” hearing what it “heard,” and picking up objects with its hand. Then he had a very odd experience. He turned his (the robot’s) head, looked across the room, and saw his fleshly body sitting on the other side, wearing all this weird-looking gear. Ben’s awareness was inside the robot, although his body was on the other side of the room. He seemed to be separate from his body.

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Our bodies, I believe, are very much like that VR robot. Our minds receive only the input of the body’s eyes and ears, and so we are fooled into thinking we are inside of it. In reality we are “somewhere else,” not inside the body at all. What we are seeing in our bodies is, in truth, only “virtual reality.” The body is “outside” of us in fact, and being without a body is our natural state. One of the aims of the Course is to help us “see our Self as separate from the body” (9:5). I hope these thoughts provide a little help in conceptualizing that possibility. The practice periods have us focusing on asking, “What is salvation, Father? I do not know” (10:6–7). The intent is to get us to let go of our existing ideas of “salvation,” which are all focused on the body, either exalting it or abasing it, so that something else can take the place of those ideas. Salvation lies in acceptance of what we are— and what we are is not a body. The lesson leaves the answering of the question about salvation to our inner listening. If we ask, it says, something will answer us (11:3; 12:5).

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LESSON 73 • MARCH 14 “I will there be light.”

Practice instructions Purpose: Another attempt to reach the light in you, which will show you the real world. Longer: Two times, for ten to fifteen minutes. I see this lesson as very similar to Lesson 69, where you spent a beginning phase reflecting on how much you want to find the light in you, and then, in the ending phase, entered a meditation in which you tried to actually reach that light. • Spend several minutes thinking about how salvation is your true will, what you really want. (To prepare yourself, I recommend rereading paragraphs 6–9, frequently inserting your name while you do so.) Think about how you truly want to reach the light in you. Think about how salvation is your will, not an alien purpose thrust upon you. Since reaching the light is your will, you can be confident in your attempt to find it today. Carry this attitude of “reaching the light is my will” into your meditation. • Then, “with gentle firmness and quiet certainty” (10:1), tell yourself, “I will there be light. Let me behold the light that reflects God’s Will and mine.” • The rest of the practice period is a meditation in which you try to reach the light in you. Hold your true will in mind and let it, joined with God and your Self, lead you to that radiant light at the center of your mind. Remember to respond to wandering thoughts with the idea, and most of all, remember to stay in touch with your will to experience the light. Frequent reminders: Several per hour. Say, “I will there be light. Darkness is not my will.” If you say it as a genuine “declaration of what you really want” (11:1), you will get more out of it. Response to temptation: Whenever you are tempted to hold a grievance. It is important to immediately say, “I will there be light. Darkness is not my will.” Remembering that it is not your will to have grievances will release your grip on them.

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Commentary This is a lesson about our will, “the will you share with God” (1:1). I’d like to focus just on what is specifically said in this lesson about our will. First, it is a will we share with God. That is, what the Course calls our will is identical to God’s Will. We want the same thing God wants for us, because we were created as extensions of His Will; what else could our will be except the same as His? Your fatherhood and your Father are one. God wills to create, and your will is His. It follows, then, that you will to create, since your will follows from His. And being an extension of His Will, yours must be the same. (T11.I.7:6–9) Our “true” will (which by the Course’s definition is our only will) is not the same as the ego’s wishes, the manifold variety of thoughts that seem to conflict with God’s Will and with each other. From the Course’s standpoint these are not our will, just ego wishes. A desire to attack, no matter how strongly we may consciously identify with it, cannot be our will; it can only be an idle wish of the ego. Our will represents our Self as God created us; anything that seems to come from a different source is not will but wish. What this means in practical terms is that our ego thoughts are not part of our true Self, and in reality we do not will them. “The will you share with God has all the power of creation in it” (1:3). Our will therefore must be realized; nothing can oppose it. We will have what we truly want because our will has all the power of creation, while the ego’s wishes have no power at all. We exist in the illusion that our ego’s wishes are almost all-powerful, and what we may think of as our higher will often seems weak by comparison. This is simply not true. It can only appear to be true for a limited time; eventually, inevitably, the will of our Self must be done. “Your will is lost to you in this strange bartering” (3:1). Our conscious awareness is out of touch with the will of our Self. Our ego’s need for grievances has created shadow figures in our minds, “figures that seem to attack you” (2:2), images from the past that we superimpose over our perceptions in the present, so that we react to people in the present as if they were these figures from our past. This traffic in grievances has blocked our real will from our awareness, covering it with the wishes of the ego until those wishes seem to be our will. We are no longer aware of what it is we really want.

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“Can such a world have been created by the Will the Son of God shares with his Father?” (3:2). The obvious answer is “no.” How could we have willed a world of attack and judgment? This is obviously not something anyone would want. The world we see reflects the ego’s wishes, not our will. “Today we will try once more to reach the world that is in accordance with your will” (4:1). This is the “real world,” as the Course defines that term. There is a world in accord with our will. We are not seeing it now, but we can. “Yet the light that shines upon this world reflects your will, and so it must be in you that we will look for it” (4:6). The real world reflects our true will, what we truly want in our eternal Self. The light that shines on it is in us, and we can find that world by looking within ourselves for the light. “Forgiveness lifts the darkness, reasserts your will, and lets you look upon a world of light” (5:4). Forgiveness lets go of grievances, thus removing the dark spots on our mind that are being projected as black blotches of darkness on the world, just as a dust mote in a movie projector throws a black spot on the screen. Forgiveness allows us to see the world as our Self truly wants to see it; it reasserts our will. “Suffering is not happiness, and it is happiness you really want. Such is your will in truth” (6:5). It seems silly to say something like “Suffering is not happiness,” and yet we often treat it as if it were happiness. We seem to prefer our pain over risking something new; at least we know how to suffer, and we are oddly afraid that we won’t know how to function if we are happy. But we don’t really want suffering; how could we? How could anyone? Our will, in truth, is happiness. “And so salvation is your will as well” (6:7). If we want happiness, we want salvation, because salvation is happiness. Salvation means happiness. We want to be relieved of suffering; we want to be happy. It amazes me sometimes how powerful a message this can be. Most of the time it seems as if I have a split mind; part of me wants to be happy, and part of me sabotages my every effort. Isn’t it peculiar how common is this thought: “It’s too good to last”? Or “Nothing lasts forever”? Or “Into each life a little rain must fall”? Something in us tells us that we can’t be happy all the time, that we don’t deserve it, or even that we couldn’t stand it. Ridiculous ideas! The will of our true Self, with all the power of creation behind it, is that we be happy. Therefore—we will be. It must be so.

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You want to accept God’s plan because you share in it. You have no will that can really oppose it, and you do not want to do so. (7:2–3) I really do want the Will of God; my will is the same as His! I want to accept salvation. There is no part of my will that opposes it; only idle, paltry ego wishes seem to. So I can’t miss; I can’t fail. My will is not different from God’s. Above all else, you want the freedom to remember Who you really are. Today it is the ego that stands powerless before your will. Your will is free, and nothing can prevail against it. (7:5–7) The power of your will and mine can bring light to this world if we simply choose to assert it. We simply realize what we truly want, and say, “I will there be light.” And there will be light. Just as God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Because our will is creative, as His is.

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LESSON 74 • MARCH 15 “There is no will but God’s.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To realize that you cannot be in conflict, because your will and every will is really God’s Will. To experience the peace that comes from this fact. Longer: Two times, for ten to fifteen minutes. • Say, “There is no will but God’s. I cannot be in conflict.” Repeat these sentences in a special way: “several times, slowly and with firm determination to understand what they mean, and to hold them in mind” (3:1). • Then for several minutes let related thoughts come. Remember your training in this. • If thoughts intrude about conflicts in your life, quickly dispel them by saying, “There is no will but God’s. These conflict thoughts are meaningless.” If a particular conflict keeps intruding, single it out. Briefly identify the person(s) and situation(s) involved and say, “There is no will but God’s. I share it with Him. My conflicts about _____ cannot be real.” You’ll probably need to keep your eyes open for this part to consult the sentences you need to repeat. • At this point, your mind should be clear and ready to turn inward. The rest of the exercise is a meditation in which you sink down and inward, into the peaceful place where God’s Will is your will. If you are succeeding, you will feel an alert, joyful peace. Do not let yourself slip off into a drowsy pseudo-peace. Repeat the idea as often as you need to in order to draw yourself back from this. Remarks: The comments in paragraphs 5 and 6 are among the most important remarks on meditation in the Workbook. You should carry their counsel into every meditation. On the one hand, they tell you not to mistake meditation for withdrawal from life’s conflicts into a mental fantasyland. On the other hand, they urge you to do everything in your power to avoid such withdrawal. This means: Do not let yourself float off into that sleepy pseudo-peace that meditation can so easily turn into. Real peace is alert and joyful, not sleepy and sluggish. When you start to go off into withdrawal, repeat the idea to draw your mind back. “Do this as often as necessary” (6:4). It is

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better to do this over and over, and never find the peace you seek, than to drift off into that drowsy haze (see 6:5). Frequent reminders: At regular intervals that you predetermine (suggestion: every half hour), for one or two minutes. • Say: “There is no will but God’s. I seek His peace today.” • Then do a brief meditation in which you try to find that peace, with eyes closed, if possible.

Commentary The lesson states that this idea “can be regarded as the central thought toward which all our exercises are directed” (1:1). The Course makes similar claims about ideas that seem quite different from this one, for instance: “There is no world!” (W-pI.132.6:2). All of the ideas so identified, however, boil down to what we can call “nondualism.” That is, God is unopposed; nothing apart from Him and His creations exists. There is no devil, no power that opposes God, nothing that exists independent of Him and therefore capable of having a differing will. To say that nothing can have a will that differs from God’s must include ourselves. The result of believing this is that conflict leaves our minds. How could our mind be in conflict if we have no will that can conflict with God’s? What, though, can we say of our common experience of wanting things that we think are opposed to God, or of wanting to do what He does not want us to do? Or even more down to earth, the experiencing of being torn between conflicting desires? If there is no will but God’s, how is such experience possible? The real answer is, it is not possible, unless there are illusions involved: “Without illusions conflict is impossible” (2:4). Conflict exists only between two illusions. In reality there is no conflict, and reality does not conflict with illusions, either: The war against yourself is but the battle of two illusions…There is no conflict between them and the truth….Truth does not fight against illusions, nor do illusions fight against the truth. Illusions battle only with themselves. (T-23.I.6:1–2; 7:3–4) When there seems to be a will opposed to God, whether outside of us or within us, we are seeing illusions.

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“There is no will but God’s. I cannot be in conflict” (3:2–3). This is the truth. I have often found that conflict thoughts in my mind can be defused simply by recognizing that they are meaningless, and that the conflict cannot be real. No peace is possible if I believe that my mind can be in conflict, but when I realize I cannot be in conflict, incredible peace results. There is a very interesting observation in paragraph 5 about discerning the reality of peaceful feelings as opposed to false peace resulting from withdrawal and repression. According to 5:4, true peace brings “a deep sense of joy and an increased alertness,” while false peace brings “drowsiness and enervation.” In our attempts to enter the quiet and feel our peace, we are admonished to avoid withdrawal and to pull ourselves back to alertness by repeating today’s idea. “There is definite gain in refusing to allow retreat into withdrawal, even if you do not experience the peace you seek” (6:5). From this we can surmise that even conscious conflict is better than repressed conflict, although the goal is to realize the unreality of the conflict and thus experience peace. Another thought: These are really very detailed meditation instructions, and they demonstrate that students are really expected to be trying to do these exercises for ten or fifteen minutes twice daily.

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LESSON 75 • MARCH 16 “The light has come.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To set aside your unforgiving perceptions of the world and look with vision upon the real world. Today is cause for special celebration, for it will be a new beginning, “the beginning of your vision and the sight of the real world” (11:2). Longer: Two times, for ten to fifteen minutes. • Tell yourself, as if announcing “the glad tidings of your release” (5:3), “The light has come. I have forgiven the world.” • The rest of the practice period is an exercise in trying to see the world that vision shows you. Begin by consciously withdrawing all the meanings you have put on the world. Imagine that your mind is “washed of all past ideas and clean of every concept you have made” (6:2). Imagine that “you do not know yet what [the world] looks like” (6:5). This act of wiping off the meanings you have written on the world is also an act of forgiving the world, and this is what grants you vision. • Then wait, with eyes open, to have vision dawn upon you. While doing so, occasionally repeat, slowly and patiently, “The light has come. I have forgiven the world.” The main attitude to hold while you wait is confidence, that you will experience vision because “your forgiveness entitles you to vision” (7:1), and because the Holy Spirit will be there with you and will not fail to give you the gift of vision. Tell these things to yourself and to the Holy Spirit while you wait, and thereby give yourself the confidence you need. And when your confidence fades, repeat again the lines with which you began, and then continue waiting for vision to dawn. Frequent reminders: Every fifteen minutes. Joyfully remind yourself that today is a time to celebrate by saying, “The light has come. I have forgiven the world.” Say it with a sense of thankfulness to God. Say it as a rejoicing in the healing of your sight. Say it in the confidence “that on this day there is a new beginning” (9:5). Response to temptation: Whenever you are tempted to be upset with someone. Do not let this person pull you back to darkness. Say to him instead, “The light has come. I have forgiven you.”

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Commentary In this lesson, as in several others, the Course speaks of me as though I have accepted its message and have forgiven the world; as though I am ready, this very day, to see the real world; as though I have attained its goal of peace. Perhaps today I do not feel quite worthy of such confidence. Yet, if what we have been reading the past two days is true, any impression that I may have that my will differs from God’s is only an illusion. My true Self, which in my right mind I am aware of, is exactly as this lesson depicts me. This lesson is the truth about myself, whether or not I have yet recognized it. If I feel a little hypocritical in practicing this lesson exactly as instructed, so be it. If I have self-doubts that arise when I say, “I have forgiven the world” (5:5; 6:9; 10:3), I let them be there; I attribute no power to them to disturb me. I am simply affirming the truth about myself. Today, I am at peace, and I bring peace with me wherever I go (1:5). “The light has come.” I let myself believe it; I let myself enter into knowing that frame of mind. Whatever my experience today, this lesson is the truth. I cannot stand against what is within me; I cannot be other than what God created me to be. “The outcome is as certain as God,” as the Text says (T-2.III.3:10). “Our single purpose makes the goal inevitable” (4:3). I will see the real world; I will see Heaven’s reflection everywhere. Do I feel I lack the certainty of this lesson’s words? That is exactly why I need to practice saying them. Perhaps if I give my little willingness to speak them, affirming that this is what I want to be true, the Holy Spirit will add His strength to my words and make them true for me. Perhaps even today. “The light has come.” It is here, right now, with me, available to me. The Holy Spirit “will be with you as you watch and wait. He will show you what true vision sees. It is His Will, and you have joined with Him. Wait patiently for Him. He will be there” (7:5–9). So I wait. I wait “patiently” and not anxiously. It may take time to manifest, but I wait patiently, confidently, knowing that His promise cannot fail. The vision I seek will come to me. “He will be there.” We are told to “tell Him you know you cannot fail because you trust in Him” (8:1). So I say it; I pray, “Holy Spirit, I know I cannot fail because I trust in You.” I affirm my confidence in my Self; I affirm the truth about me, and put aside the lies I have believed. I can be confident that this day is a new beginning for me. Something has shifted within me, and I know that I want the peace and the light this

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lesson speaks of. I know that since I want it—because of what I am, and because I am joined with the power of the Holy Spirit in wanting it, in agreement with the Will of God—I cannot fail. Today is dedicated to serenity (11:1). Today is for celebration of the beginning of my vision. I accept myself as God created me. “The light has come.”

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LESSON 76 • MARCH 17 “I am under no laws but God’s.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To really understand that you are under no laws but God’s, to see the freedom in this idea, and to rejoice that it is so. Longer: Two times, for ten to fifteen minutes. • In the first phase, briefly review the different “laws” you believe in. These include bodily laws, such as laws of nutrition, medicine, and economics; social laws, such as laws of reciprocity and good relationship; and religious laws, which set forth what you must give to God in order for Him to grant you His gifts. • Dismiss these “laws” with the thought that there are no laws but God’s. Then wait in receptive silence to hear God’s Voice (this is another exercise in listening to the Holy Spirit). While listening, from time to time repeat the idea, as an invitation to God’s Voice to help you really understand the idea. When you hear the Holy Spirit, He may tell you that God’s laws, in contrast to the world’s “laws,” only give. They do not ask for payment before they deliver you their endless blessings. He may go on to tell you of all the blessings these laws offer you, including the limitless joys of Heaven, all of which stem from God’s infinite Love for you. Remember to listen in confidence, knowing that even if you hear nothing now, God’s Voice is still speaking to you, and that your listening today will bring you closer to really hearing. If you do hear something, you may want to write it down afterwards. • Conclude by repeating the idea. Frequent reminders: Four to five per hour (at least). Repeat the idea as a declaration of freedom from all the tyrannical laws of this world and an acknowledgment that you live only under the blessing of God’s Love. Response to temptation: Whenever you feel subject to the laws of this world. Repeat the idea. Because we usually take the laws of the world for granted, we don’t always realize when we feel oppressed by them. Therefore, you may want to periodically scan your mind for the things that are weighing on you and identify the laws behind them. At any given moment, for instance, you might find that you feel oppressed by

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the laws of hunger, of time (you may be working against a deadline), of money (you may feel a shortage), and of social dynamics (you may be in a politically delicate situation). Note the laws you feel oppressing you and respond by repeating the idea as a real declaration of your freedom from them.

Commentary This is perhaps one of the most challenging lessons in the Workbook. It confronts, head on, a whole panoply of security blankets and substitutes for salvation that we have developed, and that we have convinced ourselves we depend on. It shocks us by its radical assertions. If we are open to what it says, we will begin to see that the Course is challenging all of our basic assumptions about life and about ourselves. We are far more entrenched in the ego’s illusions than we have heretofore realized. The following scenario forms the background to this lesson: 1. We are perfect, formless mind, each of us parts of a seamless whole, but we have wished to separate off and fragment a small piece of mind to call “me.” Moreover, we have not only wished to do so, we have convinced ourselves that we have actually done it. Our sense of identity has become restricted to this little fragment of mind. Our mind has felt enormous guilt because of this belief, which is false. 2. We have made up a world filled with bodies for two reasons: first, to support our illusions of separateness; and second, to escape from the guilt in our minds by projecting that guilt onto the world and the “others” who fill it. We have become primarily identified with our own body, rather than even with the fragment of mind we perceive as being “within” the body. 3. Believing we are the body, and that we (our bodies) are endangered by many things in the world, we have devised an endless list of means for protecting and preserving our bodies. These are the “laws” of the world spoken of in this lesson. The first sentence of Lesson 76 refers to an earlier statement, in the first three paragraphs of Lesson 71, that pointed out how many senseless things we have looked to for our salvation (which can be understood as protection, or safety, or even happiness). In Lesson 71, the key factor about each of these things was this thought: “If this were different, I would be saved” (W-pI.71.2:4). Lesson 76 now adds the thought that “each [of these things] has imprisoned you with laws as senseless as itself” (1:2). For example, if we look to good physical

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health to “save” us, we become bound by a myriad of laws governing health: nutrition, medicine, and so on. The lesson identifies many of the so-called laws we believe ourselves to be subject to: the need for money (paper strips and metal discs); the use of medicine to ward off disease; the need for physical interaction with other bodies (sex, companionship); laws of medicine, economics, and health (nutrition, exercise, sleep, vitamins); any way we try to protect the body; “laws” of friendship, of “good” relationships, and reciprocity (being fair); even “religious” laws. We are not actually bound by any of these laws (1:3). That is a stunning and almost unbelievable statement. In order to understand our freedom from these laws, however, we “must first realize salvation lies not there” (1:4). In other words, we have to realize that our bodies and our egos are not what need preservation. We have to undo the mistake we have made in identifying what and who we are. That undoing, of course, is what the entirety of A Course in Miracles is all about. In saying that we “bind” ourselves “to laws that make no sense” (1:5) as long as we are seeking for salvation by attempting to change something—anything—other than our minds, the Course is telling us that our subjugation to these laws of the world is something that we have chosen and are continuing to choose, moment to moment. Following the dictates of our own ego in its attempts to preserve itself at the expense of our reality, we blindly continue to look for salvation outside of ourselves. That blind pursuit is what binds us to the laws of the world. By implication, ending that mistaken pursuit will free us from the laws of the world. We think miracles mean sudden healing of the body, or the arrival of money from an unexpected source, or the appearance of someone or something we believe will bring us happiness. To believe this is still to seek for salvation from outside of our own minds, and will continue to bind us to the laws of the world. What’s worse, it also continues to make our separated, ego identity seem real to us. The idea of living without any need for money, or medicine, or physical means of protection appeals to everyone. That state can be ours, but paradoxically, not by seeking for it. The world and its laws are not where freedom lies. Having all the money we need magically provided is not freedom. Having perfect physical health is not freedom. Having “good” relationships is not freedom. Freedom has nothing to do with our bodies. Freedom can be found only within ourselves.

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“The body is endangered by the mind that hurts itself” (5:2). All of our physical lack and suffering is unconsciously engendered by our minds, in an attempt to keep the mind from consciously realizing that it is its own victim (5:3–5). Because of our primal guilt, caused by our belief in the reality of separation, our mind “attacks itself and wants to die” (5:5). This is why we think we are bodies (which do die). The “laws” we think we must obey in order to save our bodies are just the mind’s attempt to camouflage the real problem, which is its own thoughts of guilt and separation. “God’s laws forever give and never take” (9:6). The “laws” we see are not like this; therefore they cannot be real, because they do not come from God. And “there are no laws but God’s” (9:1). In today’s practice we are asked to consider our foolish laws, and then to listen, deep within, to “hear the Voice that speaks the truth to you” (9:2). This Voice will tell us of God’s undying Love, His desire that we know “endless joy” (10:5), and His yearning to use us as channels for His creation (10:6). If we hear this message of Love within ourselves, our thoughts of guilt and separation will vanish. We will realize Who we are. And in so doing, our insane desire to attack and kill ourselves will be over. The cause of our false seeking will go, and with it, our bondage to the “laws” that govern these idols we have made. By bringing our imaginary “laws” into direct confrontation with what the laws of God must be—laws in which there is no loss, no giving and receiving of payment, no exchanges nor substitutions, but only God’s unconditional Love—we are bringing our illusions to the truth. (See T-14.VII.1–4, for an excellent discussion of just why these two systems of belief need to be brought together so that the falsehoods will vanish in the light of the truth.)

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LESSON 77 • MARCH 18 “I am entitled to miracles.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To claim the miracles that belong to you, to claim the assurance that they really are yours, and to refuse to be content with anything less. Longer: Two times, for ten to fifteen minutes. • Repeat the idea as a confident request for the miracles that God has promised you. Close your eyes and remind yourself 1) that you are requesting what belongs to you, and 2) that by accepting miracles you uphold everyone’s right to miracles. • For the remainder of the practice period, wait in silent expectancy for the Holy Spirit to assure you that your request is granted, that you really are entitled to miracles. This, in other words, is yet another exercise in waiting for something from the Holy Spirit. In previous lessons (71, 72, 75, 76), you waited for guidance, understanding, or an experience of vision. Here you are waiting for the assurance that the storehouse of miracles really is open to you, really is yours. The same things apply here as in the previous lessons: 1. Wait in mental silence and expectancy. 2. Wait in confidence. Since you are asking for the assurance of something that is already true, you can ask without any doubt or uncertainty. 3. Periodically renew your request and your confidence by repeating the idea. Frequent reminders: Frequent. Repeat the idea. Throughout the day, be on the lookout for situations in which miracles are called for. “You will recognize these situations” (7:5). Then ask confidently for a miracle by repeating the idea. Response to temptation: Whenever you are tempted to hold a grievance. Say quickly, “I will not trade miracles for grievances. I want only what belongs to me. God has established miracles as my right.” Refuse to be satisfied with anything less than miracles.

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Commentary What we celebrate today is our true Identity as beings who are one with God (1:3, 5, 6). The key to what the Course calls “salvation” is simply remembering what we are. I like the threefold summary that opens the lesson. Just rearranging the words a little, the three items are: • What we are entitles us to miracles. • What God is guarantees we will receive miracles. • Our oneness with God means we will offer miracles to others. Nothing we think about ourselves, no special powers we believe we have, and no rituals we observe bring us miracles. They come to us because of what we are, because of something inherent in our being. The qualifications for miracles are given in creation; we don’t have to earn them. [The Holy Spirit] will never ask what you have done to make you worthy of the gift of God. Ask it not therefore of yourself. Instead, accept His answer, for He knows that you are worthy of everything God wills for you. Do not try to escape the gift of God He so freely and so gladly offers you. He offers you but what God gave Him for you. You need not decide whether or not you are deserving of it. God knows you are. (T-14.III.11:4– 10) The lesson affirms that we have been “promised full release from the world [we] made” (3:2), from all the darkness, pain, suffering and death resulting from our attempts at separateness. Beyond that we have been “assured that the Kingdom of God is within you, and can never be lost” (3:3). Today we are deciding not to question those premises, but to accept them as given facts. The darkness can be escaped, and the light has never been lost. And so, today, we set our minds in determination “that we will not content ourselves with less” (3:5). The longer practice periods begin with a brief time of affirmation, reminding ourselves that we have a right to miracles, and that miracles are never given to one at the expense of another. In asking for myself, I am asking for everyone. After that brief reminder, the time of practice is to be spent in quiet, waiting for an inner sense of assurance that the miracles we have asked for have been given. Since we are asking exactly what God’s Will is, for the salvation of the

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world, there is every reason to believe that He will respond favorably to our requests. Actually, asking for miracles isn’t really asking for anything. It is an affirmation of what is always already true. The Holy Spirit can’t help assuring us our request is granted! (6:1–3). How can He possibly respond differently? He cannot deny our prayer without denying the truth, and He speaks only for the truth. “Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists” (T-In.2:2–3). That is what this kind of prayer affirms. In the description of the short practice periods, we are told to ask for miracles “whenever a situation arises in which they are called for” (7:4). Then it says, “You will recognize these situations” (7:5). There is no question here, not even a need to explain how we’ll know. “You will recognize these situations.” Something in us simply knows when to ask for a miracle. Notice too that we do not try to generate the miracle ourselves, out of our own resources; we ask the Holy Spirit. We are turning with our need to the Source of miracles; we are not trying to take the place of the Source. We do depend on what we are as our entitlement to miracles, but we are not relying on ourselves to find them (7:6). Let’s remember that a “miracle” as the Course understands it does not necessarily mean any kind of visible changes. “Miracles are thoughts” (T-1.I.12:1). They are shifts away from the bodily level, a way in which we recognize our own worth and our brother’s at the same time (T-1.I.17:2; 18:4). A miracle is a correction of false thinking (T-1.I.37:1). Miracles are always expressions of love, “but they may not always have observable effects” (T-1.I.35:1). Let’s remember, also, that “may not always” does not mean “will never.” If I say, “I often eat Wheaties for breakfast but I may not always eat them,” the implication is that a lot of the time I do eat Wheaties. So when the Course says that miracles may not always have observable effects, it clearly implies that most of the time they do have observable effects. We should not mistakenly think a miracle has not happened if there are no observable effects, but neither should we mistakenly set aside any expectation of observable effects. The essential ingredient, however, is not anything in the material world, but the freeing of our minds from illusions.

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LESSON 78 • MARCH 19 “Let miracles replace all grievances.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To lay down the dark shield of our grievances and “and gently lift our eyes in silence to behold the Son of God” (2:3). Longer: Two times, for ten to fifteen minutes. • Select a person about whom you have grievances. Read the list in paragraph 4 and choose the person who comes to mind while reading that list. • Close your eyes and review how you currently see this person, in two ways. First, review his negative deeds and traits: his faults, his mistakes, his “sins,” and all the ways in which he has caused you difficulty and pain. Second, review his body, both “its flaws and better points” (6:4). Visualizing his body is a great way to get in touch with the grievances you carry toward him. • Then ask the Holy Spirit to show you the shining savior this person really is, beyond your grievances. Say, “Let me behold my savior in this one You have appointed as the one for me to ask to lead me to the holy light in which he stands, that I may join with him.” This very long sentence is a powerful reversal of how you currently see this person. Now, you see him as an attacker who stands apart from you. This sentence, however, depicts him as your savior, whose holiness will lead you into the radiance of his true reality, where you will discover that you and he are one. The only thing needed for him to fulfill this role is for you to see him truly, which is what the sentence invites. So don’t just say the sentence once. Repeat it many times during the practice period. • This sentence invites an actual experience from the Holy Spirit. It invites Him to reveal to you this person’s shining reality, which lies past your grievances. So this is yet another exercise in asking for some inward thing from the Holy Spirit. Remember the training you’ve received in this: 1. Wait in stillness. “Be very quiet now, and look upon your shining savior” (8:6).

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2. Wait in confidence. “What you have asked for cannot be denied” (8:1). 3. Periodically renew your request by repeating the sentence. Frequent reminders/response to temptation: Whenever you meet or think of or remember someone. Pray, “Let miracles replace all grievances.” This means, “Let the miracle of Who you really are replace my grievances about you.” Realize that this releases both of you, along with everyone else.

Commentary If I did not have grievances everything would be miraculous to me. The contention of the Course is that the truth is obvious, and only seems difficult to see because we block it from our awareness with our grievances. The very purpose of a grievance is to conceal the miracle hiding beneath it (1:2). The miracle is still there, nevertheless. Today we want to look on miracles. “We will reverse the way you see by not allowing sight to stop before it sees” (2:2). That is what we are in the habit of doing—allowing our sight to stop at the external appearance, without moving our perception beyond that to what the appearance is hiding. What we see at first, the external appearance, is our “shield of hate” (1:2; 2:3). It always shows us things that bring us grief in one way or another. We do not want to stop at that today; we want to lay down the shield and “lift our eyes in silence to behold the Son of God” (2:3). The Son of God is hidden in every one of us. Only our grievances prevent us from seeing him everywhere. Some of us may be very aware of grievances; others of us may wonder what on earth is being talked about. But if we look honestly at the thoughts in our minds, unless we live in perfect true perception already, free from all suffering, wholly joyful always, we will find grievances there. We often do not recognize them for what they are. There is a real need for honest self-assessment to recognize the shields in our minds that block the light from our sight. Look at some of the suggestions (in 4:5) for picking a person with whom to practice this lesson. Someone we “fear and even hate” is probably obvious to us, if we have such a person in our lives; we can recognize this as a grievance easily. “Someone you think you love who angered you” is probably also quite clear; yes, that is a grievance. A friend “whom you see as difficult at times”—is that a grievance that blocks light from me? Yes, indeed. Someone “hard to please”? Someone we see as demanding, or who we view as being

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“irritating”? Are these grievances? Yes! And even someone “untrue to the ideal he should accept as his, according to the role you set for him.” How many of us, who tend to view ourselves as spiritual students of the Course, would have recognized this subtle judgment as a grievance? Yes, that opinion you hold about that person who hasn’t lived up to his or her potential, the one you think you love and care for and show so much concern about—that is also a grievance, blocking the light of the Son of God from your vision. I love the way Jesus says, “You know the one to choose; his name has crossed your mind already” (5:1). He so often seems to be intimately familiar with the inside of our minds, doesn’t he? This exercise is a powerful one. It is also very practical and down to earth, dealing with one specific person in our lives. “Let him be savior unto you today” (5:5). Him? Savior? You want me to let that person be savior to me? How can I possibly see him like that? If questions like that come to me, they only demonstrate the illusory solidity of the shield of grievance in my mind. The Son of God is evident in “that one” if I am willing to let go of my grievances. Now remember: We’re just doing an exercise here. Maybe you don’t feel ready yet to entirely let go of all grievances, to relinquish your judgment of this person forever. Okay. How about just practicing it for ten or fifteen minutes? Just try it on for size, see what it feels like. That’s all that is being asked. This is how we save the world—by just this kind of practice. Christ is waiting in each of us to be released. You have the power to release him in everyone around you today, simply by looking past your grievances and seeing Christ in them. The Holy Spirit in your brothers and sisters “leans from [them] to you, seeing no separation in God’s Son” (8:4). By allowing your brother to play the role of savior in your mind, you have “allowed the Holy Spirit to express through him the role God gave Him that you might be saved” (8:8). You have seen him as he is, and that vision in your mind will awaken his to see the truth about himself. You will call it out of him through your faith. This is how we play the role of savior ourselves; as you draw it forth from your brothers, their gratitude will teach you the truth about yourself, and you will realize that something in you has manifested in saving grace to lift your brother. What you have given, you must have had in order to give it. The salvation you have given him is yours, and you recognize it because you gave it. That is how this process works. We can practice it even in our minds with people from our past (10:3).

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So I take the role assigned me by God. I choose today to let miracles replace all grievances in my mind. Whenever I notice a grievance, I will ask that a miracle replace it. Let me see you, my friend, as my savior today. Thank you for being there. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to give.

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LESSON 79 • MARCH 20 “Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.”

Practice instructions Longer: Two times, for ten to fifteen minutes. • Try to free your mind of your perception of your problems. Do your best to “entertain some doubt about the reality of your version of what your problems are” (8:3). Try to realize that the many-ness of your problems is a smokescreen, hiding the fact that you have only one problem. Do not, however, define what this one problem is. • Then ask what your one problem is and wait for the answer. Even though the lesson has said your problem is separation, set that aside and listen for an answer that genuinely comes from within you. • Then ask what is the answer to the one problem. In asking about the problem and the answer, apply your training in how to listen to the Holy Spirit: wait in mental silence, wait in confidence (“We will be told”—7:6), and periodically repeat your request while you wait. Response to temptation: Whenever you see a problem. • Recognize that this is simply the one problem showing up in disguise. Say immediately, “Let me recognize this problem so it can be solved.” • Then try to lay aside what you think the problem is. If you can, close eyes and ask what it is. You will be told.

Commentary This lesson, with the next, presents one of the clearest statements of an important Course principle: “One problem, one solution,” as it is stated in Lesson 80 (1:5). These lessons merit repeated reading until the concepts they teach become embedded in our thought processes. I seem to be faced with a multitude of problems, overwhelming in number and complexity, ranging from tiny to titanic, constantly shifting, changing, appearing and disappearing in the moments of my life. If I pause to consider things objectively from this viewpoint the only possible response is blind panic. Attention paid to one problem obliterates dozens of others, equally deserving of my attention, from conscious consideration. Like Lucy and Ethel on the pie conveyor, as

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things speed up I can only start stuffing some of the “pastries” down my shirt, trying to hide them before my failure to handle them becomes evident. Seen from the perspective of specialness, my problems doom me to failure after failure, with every moment increasing my overwhelming sense of inadequacy. What if all of these problems were really just one? What if I already had the solution to that one problem? I can scarcely imagine the universal sense of relief that would run through my being if I could grasp that this were true: All of my problems are one, and that one has already been solved. Could this be? Yes. If I think my problems are many and separate, if I have failed to recognize the one problem in them all, I could already have the answer and not know it. I could even be aware of the answer without realizing its application to what seem to me to be very different problems. “This is the situation of the world. The problem of separation, which is really the only problem, has already been solved. Yet the solution is not recognized because the problem is not recognized” (1:3–5). To break free of this illusory imprisonment, then, my first step must be to recognize the problem in every problem. I have to become aware of what the problem is before I can realize that I already hold the solution to it. As long as I think the problem is something other than my separateness from God (which has already been so completely resolved that it has become a nonissue), I will continue to think I have problems and lack the solution. I will look for “salvation” from my problems everywhere but where the answer is because I have already discounted the answer as irrelevant to the problem at hand. “Who can see that a problem has been solved if he thinks the problem is something else?” (2:3). The seeming complexity of the world is nothing more than my mind’s attempt to not recognize the single problem, thus preventing its resolution (6:1). My greatest initial need, therefore, is to perceive “the underlying constancy in all the problems” (6:3). If I can see the separation at the root of every problem I would realize that I already have the answer, and I would use the answer. I would be free. Again, this lesson is so wonderfully forgiving. Even the idea of seeing all my problems as variations on the theme of separation may seem an impossibly daunting task. So the lesson tells me:

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That is not necessary. All that is necessary is to entertain some doubt about the reality of your version of what your problems are. (8:2–3) The only thing I have to do is to doubt? Hey, I can handle that; I’m pretty good at doubting. All I am being asked to do is to “suspend all judgment about what the problem is” (10:4). “Suspend” means to temporarily abate; the lesson does not even ask me to lay aside my judgments forever. Just for an instant. Just allow myself to doubt my personal perspective on things and consider that there might be another way of looking at it. So today I am called to doubt. To doubt my version of what my problems are. To think to myself, “I’m probably not seeing this with complete clarity. I’m probably muddling the issues here somewhere.” And then to ask, “What is the real problem here?” That kind of practice even I can handle. Thank You, God, for such a simple Course!

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LESSON 80 • MARCH 21 “Let me recognize my problems have been solved.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To claim the peace to which you are entitled by the fact that God has solved your only problem. Longer: Two times, for ten to fifteen minutes. This is an exercise in just basking in the awareness that you are problem-free. I see it as being much like Lesson 50 (you may want to review those instructions now), where you thought about the idea and rested in the peace that it provided. So do that here. Close your eyes and realize that, having recognized the problem (yesterday), you have also accepted the answer. This means that your one problem has been solved. Reflect on this. Think about the fact that all your problems are gone. Reflect on the fact that you are totally conflict-free. You have only one problem and God has solved it. Use these thoughts to claim the peace that now belongs to you. Lean back and relax in that peace. Rest in the feeling of being carefree. Frequent reminders: As frequently as possible. Repeat the idea (you may want to shorten it to “My problems have been solved”), with gratitude and with deep conviction. If you will, try now repeating it once with gratitude, and then try repeating it with deep conviction. Response to temptation: Whenever a specific problem arises, especially an interpersonal one. Immediately say, “Let me recognize this problem has been solved.” Be determined not to saddle yourself with problems that don’t exist.

Commentary “One problem, one solution” (1:5). “The problem must be gone, because God’s answer cannot fail” (4:2). So I must be at peace— whether I know it or not. I have no more problems. Seeing and understanding this, accepting it wholly, is the essence of salvation (1:8; 2:5; 5:6). To see a problem as unresolved is to accumulate a grievance and to block the light from my awareness. An unresolved problem is an occasion of unforgiveness. It represents something I do not approve of, a cause of judgment in my mind. “Certain it is that all distress

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does not appear to be but unforgiveness. Yet that is the content underneath the form” (W-pI.193.4:1–2). When the Course speaks of our forgiving the world, it means the same thing as our recognizing that all problems are only forms of separation, which has already been resolved. The answer to every problem, therefore, is forgiveness, or accepting the Atonement, recognizing that nothing, whatever form nothing takes, can separate me from the love of God; nothing can take away my peace. I am writing this on the last day (1995) of a visit with my son in California. I have spent two nights sleeping on an air mattress. Last night, the air mattress sprang a leak, and I woke about five o’clock with most of my body on the ground and my arms and legs still half floating several inches higher, a most uncomfortable position. I couldn’t get back to sleep, so I am feeling short of sleep. I’m concerned about driving home from Phoenix late tonight, two hours in the dark desert, alone, and sleepy. That seems to be a problem. How is that a form of unforgiveness? How is this problem of short sleep a manifestation of separation? If I recognize that my only problem is separation and that it has been solved, I can realize that a lack of sleep cannot separate me from God’s Love and peace. I can forgive the air mattress, or forgive my son for providing a flawed bed. I can forgive myself for worrying about the drive. I can accept that nothing is wrong and that my life is in the hands of God, and all will work out just as it should. Perhaps my body will be energized enough that I will not be sleepy as I drive home. Perhaps I will spend the night with friends in Phoenix even though that is not “my” plan. Perhaps I will pull off the road and sleep in my truck. Whatever happens, I do not need to be pulled out of peace by this event; my problem has been solved. I can be at peace now. Or, if I so choose, I can destroy my last day with my son and grandchildren by obsessing about my problem. I can worry about falling asleep at the wheel. I can be upset because I may be forced to change my plan. I can be grumpy and grouchy and miss out on the love that is around me with my grandchildren. Is that really a choice I want to make? A collapsing air mattress is not my problem. The only problem is allowing that, or anything like it, to disturb the peace of God that is always mine if I choose to have it. The only problem is separation from God. The events in our lives do not, and cannot, cause us to separate from Him. When we seem to be upset it is always a choice we make; the events we connect to that loss of peace are only a

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convenient excuse. Forgiveness involves recognizing our responsibility and lifting the blame for loss of peace from the persons and events of our lives and accepting that the peace of God has not been taken from us, cannot be taken from us, and indeed has never left us. We have merely closed our eyes to it. And we can open them again at any instant we choose to do so. The events and persons may or may not change as a result. The Atonement does not plug the leak in the mattress. It may or may not supply me with more energy to make the drive to Sedona. Sometimes those things happen, sometimes they don’t; it depends on what plan the Holy Spirit has for me. What happens externally is not the problem, and the solution lies not in externals, but within me. Will I choose peace, or choose upset? Will I forgive, or will I project my rejection of peace onto the external things and blame them? Peace lies in acceptance. I accept God’s peace whatever happens. I refuse to believe that anything can separate me from the Love of God. I refuse to deceive myself about what the problem really is. I recognize the problem is within me, and I bring the problem to the answer. And I rest, trusting the Holy Spirit to arrange the circumstances as He sees fit, not as I think they should be. I am out of conflict; I am free and at peace.

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REVIEW II INTRODUCTION A brief word on the review instructions. There are two longer practice periods (see “One or two?” below) of about fifteen minutes, in which we read over the two ideas and the associated comments, and then spend the bulk of the time with our eyes closed, “listening quietly but attentively” (W-pI.rII.In.3:1) for a message. Most longtime students of the Course agree that this does not mean we should expect to hear a voice, as Helen Schucman did, although some may. Messages can come in many forms: a feeling, an idea, an awareness without words. We are not used to sitting quietly just listening, and this is practice in doing so. During the first half of the day we are to work with the first idea, and in the second half, the second idea. The shorter periods are not assigned any number; we are to continue the “frequent” applications of the previous lessons. If you take all the lessons in which a number is mentioned in regard to these shorter practices, the numbers average out to five per hour; I think we can assume that is about what is intended during these days of review. Notice the seriousness attached to both the longer and shorter practices. I, for one, try to avoid the temptation to treat the review period as a time to slack off. This is what the author says: Regard these practice periods as dedications to the way, the truth and the life. Refuse to be sidetracked into detours, illusions and thoughts of death. You are dedicated to salvation. Be determined each day not to leave your function unfulfilled. (W-pI.rII.In.5:1–4) This is a course in mind training. Our minds will not be trained if we do not practice. We will not learn listening if we do not practice. This is what doing the Workbook is all about. Additional notes: ONE OR TWO? THIS NEEDS TO BE REWRITTEN, EXPLAINING THAT IT IS TWO Over the years, a few of my readers have written questioning whether this review calls for one or two longer practice periods. The review’s Introduction can be understood either way. Robert sees only one longer period devoted to both ideas for review. Others see it calling for two 15-minute periods, one in the morning for the first idea, one later in the day for the second idea. For a long time I saw it that way, too. If you are concerned about this, we’ll see what we can determine from the review instructions.

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The relevant portions of the review instructions are these: We will begin where our last review left off, and cover two ideas each day. The earlier part of each day will be devoted to one of these ideas, and the latter part of the day to the other. We will have one longer exercise period, and frequent shorter ones in which we practice each of them. The longer practice periods will follow this general form: Take about fifteen minutes for each of them, and begin by thinking about the ideas for the day, and the comments that are included in the assignments. Devote some three or four minutes to reading them over slowly, several times if you wish, and then close your eyes and listen (W-pI.rII.In.1–2). The last sentence in the first paragraph seems to imply a single long practice period, and “frequent” short ones. But the first sentence in the second paragraph speaks of “longer practice periods,” plural. It could be referring to the ten periods, one per day, over the days of review. Frankly, until I talked with Robert last year, I thought these instructions meant for us to do two longer periods daily. It made sense, one idea for each longer review. However, in 2:1, the instructions for “each of them,” that is for each longer review, tell us to think about “the ideas [plural] for the day.” So this seems to be speaking of a single period in which we think about both ideas. I don’t think it matters a whole lot. If you want to do one period, then be sure to review both ideas in it. If you want to do two periods, review one idea for each period. The bulk of each period, after the first three or four minutes, is to be spent simply listening quietly for a message. Doing two longer practice periods daily can’t hurt, if you are up to it. We can use all the practice we can get! (I have altered the practice summaries for these lessons to say, “One or two” times.)

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REVIEW II PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS Longer: Two times (once for each of the ideas), for about fifteen minutes. • For three or four minutes, slowly read over the idea and comments (repeatedly if you wish) and think about them. • Close your eyes and spend the remainder of the practice period listening for the message the Holy Spirit has for you. We can see this time of listening as having the following components: 1. Listen “quietly but attentively” (3:1)—listen in stillness and with all your attention. 2. Hold an attitude of confidence (“this message belongs to me”), desire (“I want this message”), and determination (“I’m determined to succeed”). 3. Listening for ten minutes can easily be one big invitation to mind wandering, and so the majority of instruction for this exercise deals with this issue. For out-of-control mind wandering, go back and repeat the first phase. For more minor wandering, realize the distracting thoughts have no power and that your will has all the power, and then replace the thoughts with your will to succeed. Do so with firmness. “Do not allow your intent to waver” (4:1). “Refuse to be sidetracked” (5:2). This is not mentioned in the instructions, but you may find it helpful to actually ask for the message, at the beginning and then periodically throughout. You may say, for instance, “What is Your message for me today?” You may even want to use this request as the specific vehicle for dispelling wandering thoughts. Frequent reminders: Frequent. Repeat the idea as a way of reaffirming your determination to succeed. • First half of day: first lesson • Second half of day: second lesson Response to temptation: Whenever you are tempted to be upset. Repeat some variation on the idea, modified to apply to this particular upset. • You may use one of the three “specific forms” (W-pI.rII.In.6:1) suggested after each lesson. Notice how they are directed at a specific upset. Virtually every one is aimed at an upsetting “this” or an upsetting “name.”

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• Or you may generate one of your own specific forms, by using a variation on the practice of letting related thoughts come. Simply lean back and let your mind come up with a sentence that applies the essence of the idea to your current upset. For examples, see the specific forms suggested after each lesson.

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LESSON 81 • MARCH 22 (61) “I am the light of the world.” (62) “Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world.”

Practice instructions See instructions on page XXX.

Commentary “I am the light of the world.” Lighting up the world is our function. The Course is teaching us to remember Who we are, and to begin to live as Who we are. We are lights, and we can live as lights in this world, through our forgiveness sharing the happy news of freedom from all guilt. As St. Francis of Assisi prayed, “Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace.” May I leave everyone I meet a little brighter today. May the world seem a little less dark for everyone I encounter. May each one I touch feel more loveable as a result of meeting me. May I ask to see the light in every situation; may I respond to darkness with light. “Forgiveness is my function as the light of the world.” If I do not feel like the light of the world this day, let me forgive another; everyone I forgive will show me the light in myself. It’s even okay that I don’t yet understand what true forgiveness really is; that can’t stop me if I am willing to learn, and I am willing. Every situation that seems to bring distress is a chance to learn what forgiveness really is. I don’t want to use the circumstances of my day for any purpose other than God’s. Let everything be grist for the mill.

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LESSON 82 • MARCH 23 (63) “The light of the world brings peace to every mind through my forgiveness.” (64) “Let me not forget my function.”

Practice instructions See instructions on page XXX.

Commentary My forgiveness serves three primary purposes, according to this review: 1. The light of the world is expressed through me, in this world, by means of forgiveness. Part II of the Workbook says that forgiveness is the reflection of love in this world (W-pII.352.1:4); it also refers to it as “truth’s reflection” (W-pII.357.1:1). The full reality of love cannot be known in this world, but we can know its reflection, which is forgiveness. The reality of what I am is reflected here as I forgive. 2. I become aware of my own reality, the light of the world, by means of my forgiveness. What comes through me shows me what I am. I become increasingly aware of the Holy Spirit in me, and the Christ of which He speaks, by seeing His effects through me (T-9.IV.5:5). To learn that I am love, I must teach love. Forgiveness, love’s reflection, is how I do that in this world. 3. The world is healed by means of my forgiveness, and so am I. As I forgive those around me, they see love reflected through me, and they see themselves in the light of love and are healed. It is easy to see why forgiveness plays such a major role in the Course. It is easy to feel motivated to “forgive the world, that it may be healed along with me” (1:5). I like practicing the line “Let peace extend from my mind to yours, [name]” (2:2). I will practice it now, as I write this, thinking of all of

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you who will be receiving this message: May peace extend from my mind to yours. With forgiveness as my function, and with forgiveness having so many profound effects, I do not want to forget it today. It helps me become aware of my Self, and so I want to practice it today. Let me use everything today as an opportunity to learn forgiveness.

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LESSON 83 • MARCH 24 (65) “My only function is the one God gave me.” (66) “My happiness and my function are one.”

Practice instructions See instructions on page XXX.

Commentary To be without conflicting goals in life is a wonderful blessing. Most of the time, I feel stressed out with conflicting goals. I want to exercise but I have a deadline to meet for work. I want to spend time with my friends but my favorite TV program is on. And so on. When I am able to realize that my only function is the one God gave me— forgiveness, or simply being happy instead of being angry or upset— things become marvelously clear. My goal becomes to be at peace, to be happy, to be serene and unaffected by what surrounds me. “What to do, what to say and what to think” (1:4) simply come to me. Perhaps I realize that it makes no real difference whether I exercise or write. Perhaps I realize that one or the other can wait. Remembering my one and only true goal somehow sorts out everything else. I used to think that when I had a conflict, the only way to become peaceful again was to make a decision, to resolve the conflict. It rarely worked. Usually, when I made my choice, I felt some distress at what I was leaving undone, or some loss at what I could not do because of my choice (e.g., watch TV or be with my friends; one or the other had to be “sacrificed”). Lately I’ve begun to realize that if I put becoming peaceful at the top of the list, if I choose to be peaceful first, before making my decision (perhaps taking a minute just to close my eyes and be quiet, remembering Who is with me), the decision becomes simple, and there is no sense of sacrifice. When I put peace first, I just know what to do. This is the way to be happy. My function is one with my happiness. If I can be at peace, letting go of my grievances, the little demands I constantly make of life, I am happy. Like forgiveness, happiness is a choice I can make at any time. I notice today that the examples given of different ways to apply the ideas in specific situations seem to emphasize a kind of negation. They stress that the situation, or the way we perceive it, can not affect us if we so choose. The way I perceive this doesn’t change my

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function, give me a different function, or justify selecting a goal other than the one God gave me. No matter what I see, no matter what happens, nothing will alter the fact that the only way I will find happiness is if I fulfill my function of forgiveness, blessing, and peace. There is no happiness apart from my function, and I am deceived by an illusion whenever I think there is. Do I expect to find happiness by indulging worry, justifying my anger, indulging my appetites, or licking my wounds of pain? It will never happen. Only in forgiveness, only in releasing everyone and everything from all my demands and expectations, only in quiet peacefulness of mind will I ever find my happiness.

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LESSON 84 • MARCH 25 (67) “Love created me like Itself.” (68) “Love holds no grievances.”

Practice instructions See instructions on page XXX.

Commentary If I am created in the likeness of my Creator, then “I cannot suffer, I cannot experience loss and I cannot die. I am not a body” (1:3–4). That just makes sense. God cannot suffer, experience loss or die, and He is not a body. He created me like Himself (1:8); therefore these things must be true of me. My reality is completely unlike what I believe about myself, for assuredly I have believed that I can suffer, experience loss and die, and I have identified almost entirely with my body. What is it that makes and reinforces this illusion about myself? Grievances. “Love holds no grievances” (3:1). I am love, in the likeness of Love which created me, but when I choose to hold a grievance I am denying my own reality, I am affirming I am not love, because “grievances are completely alien to love” (3:2). In so doing, I am reaffirming that I am what I think I have made of myself, and I am choosing, without conscious awareness, to suffer, lose, and die. The only way I can rediscover my own reality is to stop holding grievances. A grievance is an attack on my Self (3:6; 4:4). It affirms that I am something I am not. If I see ugliness, unloveliness or evil in my brothers I am attacking myself. Deny what they are and I am denying what I am. Today I choose to see others as I would see myself, and as I would have God see me. I have the power to make this choice. I see what I desire to see, and today I desire to see my Self, in myself and in everyone.

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LESSON 85 • MARCH 26 (69) “My grievances hide the light of the world in me.” (70) “My salvation comes from me.”

Practice instructions See instructions on page XXX.

Commentary What is the “this” referred to in the six specific applications in this lesson? What is it that might block my sight, that the light will shine away? What is it that I have no need for, and which tempts me to look away from me for my salvation? What is “this” that could interfere with my awareness of the Source of salvation, and which seems to have power to remove salvation from me? “This” is grievances: anything I react to with less than the perfect love which is my reality. Anything I do not like, or push away from me, or blame for my problems, or look upon as less than God’s creation. Anything within myself I hold with something other than compassion and forgiveness. “My grievances show me what is not there” (1:2). They cause me to see something that is not real, and I react with fear or hatred or anger. My reactions are as inappropriate as a child’s fear of a curtain flapping in the dark. I am seeing something that isn’t there, because only what God created is real. I am jumping at shadows when the reality is sheer beauty. The grievances not only show me things that aren’t real, they hide what I really want. If this is what my grievances really do, why would I want them? I do not really want them; I have used them in a mistaken attempt to protect myself, but I can recognize now that I no longer want them or need them. I do not blame myself for having chosen them in the past but I do not need to continue to choose them now. I want to see, and so I lay them aside joyfully, without guilt, without regret. What I am looking for is in my Self (3:3). I won’t look outside of myself today. “It is not found outside and then brought in. But from within me it will reach beyond, and everything I see will but reflect the light that shines in me and in itself” (3:6–7). My grievances tempt me to look outside for salvation, thinking I know what must change out there to bring me peace, feeling anger or sorrow or betrayal as I look on the things I blame for my loss of peace. But I recognize today

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that the answer is in my Self. Rather than seeking for the light, I will be the light today, and lighten my whole world.

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LESSON 86 • MARCH 27 (71) “Only God’s plan for salvation will work.” (72) “Holding grievances is an attack on God’s plan for salvation.”

Practice instructions See instructions on page XXX.

Commentary I find it really interesting how the lessons seem to alternate between seeing grievances, and where we look for salvation. I’m beginning to get the idea, I think: When my ego wants to keep me from finding God’s salvation within my own Self, it distracts me with some kind of grievance outside myself. Seeing the cause of my distress outside, I naturally look for the solution outside. I seek salvation outside myself. It’s never what is outside that is the problem. “Those whom you see as guilty become the witnesses to guilt in you, and you will see it there, for it is there until it is undone. Guilt is always in your mind, which has condemned itself. Project it not, for while you do, it cannot be undone” (T-13.IX.6:6–8). What we are seeing out there, the object of our grievances, is only the projection of self-condemnation. We may change the name of the sin to protect the guilty (ourselves), but it is our sin we are seeing out there in the world. That is why seeing grievances outside keeps us from finding salvation inside. As the review says, we have sought salvation in many different places and things, and it was never where we looked (1:3). We can’t find it out there because it isn’t out there, anywhere. There is no hope for salvation in the world—and that is good news. It’s good news because we no longer have to depend on someone or something outside of ourselves to play its proper role, to arrive at the right time to meet our needs, or to do anything. We can let go of expecting someone else to save us, and we can turn to the only thing we can absolutely depend on: ourselves, our real Self. We can let everyone else off the hook we’ve been holding them on for our entire lives. We can tell the world, “You are no longer responsible for me. I no longer hold you accountable for my unhappiness. I’ve realized that is my own job, not yours.”

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I remember how odd I felt, but how happy, to tell my dear friend Lynne, years ago, “I’ve realized that I don’t need you.” She was delighted, being far wiser than I was at the time. I was afraid she would be insulted; how “unromantic” a thing to say to a partner in love! “I don’t need you.” She understood exactly what I meant, though. I was telling her that she was no longer expected to make me happy; she was no longer saddled with the unbearable burden of my happiness. Thinking that our love partner is responsible for our happiness is exactly what makes special relationships into hell, because when I am not happy, I have a grievance, just like in a labor union: “Hey! You’re not living up to your part of the bargain. You’re supposed to make me happy.” And the grievance against our partner keeps us from seeing the salvation in our own hearts. I’ve always liked the last line in today’s lesson: “This calls for salvation, not attack” (4:4). It reminds me of the old line in the ancient Superman TV series (the one with George Reeves—guess I’m really dating myself here!). Clark Kent looks at some crime or disaster in progress, and says, “This is a job for…[in a totally different, ‘supersounding’ voice] Superman!” Instead of looking at the events in our lives and thinking, “This is a job for the ego. Let’s attack! Let’s form and hold a grievance,” we can look at the situation and say, “This is a job for God! Let’s forgive! Let’s respond with love to the call for love.” When some need arises around me, which power will I call on: God, or the ego? The choice is “between misperception and salvation” (4:2). The only alternative to salvation is something unreal, an illusion, a misperception. The only way I can avoid being happy is to misperceive my brother; if I see him or her truly, I will always find salvation. “By holding grievances, I am therefore excluding my only hope of salvation from my awareness” (3:4). What a silly thing to do! I think I’ll stop! “I would accept God’s plan for salvation and be happy” (3:6).

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LESSON 87 • MARCH 28 (73) “I will there be light.” (74) “There is no will but God’s.”

Practice instructions See instructions on page XXX.

Commentary Today’s review deals with will—ours and God’s, which are one. The Course encourages us to make use of the power of our will. It constantly encourages us to choose again, and says that “the power of decision is your one remaining freedom as a prisoner of this world” (T-12.VII.9:1). We can will, or choose, that there be light. Naturally this accords with God’s Will. You could say, I suppose, that our one true choice is to decide to agree with God’s Will, and we must make this choice over and over until we realize there is no other will, and therefore, no actual choice except that between reality and illusion. In the review of “There is no will but God’s” there is an interesting summary of the progression of the ego’s error: • I believe there is another will besides God’s. • Because of this I become afraid. • Because of fear, I try to attack. • Because I attack, I fear my own eternal safety (thinking God will attack me for being an attacker). The solution is simply to recognize that none of this has occurred. Knock down the basic premise—realize there is no will but God’s— and the rest of the progression disappears. I like the way both ideas are applied to how I see the other people around me: “You stand with me in light, [name]” (2:3) and “It is God’s Will you are His Son, [name], and mine as well” (4:3). One night in our study group in Sedona we were studying Chapter 14, section V, “The Circle of Atonement.” The whole section is about seeing other people as within the circle of peace, seeing them as included, or seeing them standing with me in light, as it is put here. In that section Jesus urges us, “Stand quietly within this circle, and attract all tortured minds to join with you in the safety of its peace and holiness” (T-14.V.8:6). It says that this is “the only purpose to which my teaching calls you” (T-14.V.9:9).

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Our only purpose here is to awaken everyone to the fact that they are included in God’s peace and safety because there is no other will than His. Imagine mentally greeting everyone you meet today by saying, “You stand with me in light.” What kind of effect would that have on you? Or on them? Lesson 109 says it has a profound effect, not just on people you actually meet, but on everyone in the world, even those who have passed on beyond the world, and those still to come to it: Each hour that you take your rest today, a tired mind is suddenly made glad. (6:1) With each five minutes that you rest today, the world is nearer waking. (7:1) You rest within the peace of God today, and call upon your brothers from your rest to draw them to their rest, along with you. You will be faithful to your trust today, forgetting no one, bringing everyone into the boundless circle of your peace, the holy sanctuary where you rest. Open the temple doors and let them come from far across the world, and near as well; your distant brothers and your closest friends; bid them all enter here and rest with you. (8:1–3) You rest within the peace of God today, quiet and unafraid. Each brother comes to take his rest, and offer it to you. We rest together here, for thus our rest is made complete, and what we give today we have received already. Time is not the guardian of what we give today. We give to those unborn and those passed by, to every Thought of God, and to the Mind in which these Thoughts were born and where they rest. And we remind them of their resting place each time we tell ourselves, “I rest in God.” (9:1–6)

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LESSON 88 • MARCH 29 (75)”The light has come.” (76) “I am under no laws but God’s.”

Practice instructions See instructions on page XXX.

Commentary The ideas being reviewed today seem to be concerned with very different concepts, yet have a certain common ground that is brought out in this review. That common ground could be expressed in this thought: Only what is of God is real; what appears to be in opposition is only an illusion without power, except that given it through my belief. The light of salvation has already come. “I always choose between truth and illusion” (1:5), and “attack and grievances are not there to choose” (1:4). I really have no alternative to the light because there is no alternative. My entire experience of darkness is an adventure in delusion and nothing more; there is no darkness. “I can but choose the light, for it has no alternative” (1:7). This is why the Text tells me that the outcome of my drama here on earth is inevitable. “God is inevitable, and you cannot avoid Him any more than He can avoid you” (T-4.I.9:11). In seeking that my perception be changed, I am only seeking to see what is already there, and what is the only thing there. God’s laws alone rule me. The other laws that I think have power over me are laws that I made up. “I suffer only because of my belief in them. They have no real effect on me at all” (3:5–6). The laws of the ego cannot constrain me; I can be free of them now because I am, in reality, always free of them; they have no power. My ego at times seems so very powerful, the knee-jerk reaction of hurt and anger seems beyond my control and in control of me, but it is not so. I am free of these “laws” of chaos, of sin and guilt and punishment and separation. The healing of every relationship is inevitable because God’s laws make us one, not separate. “A happy outcome to all things is sure” (W-pII.292.Heading), because there are no laws but God’s, no will but God’s. Only my belief in it gives power to the appearance of an opposing will, with opposing laws.

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Let me then, today, look on everything with this insight. Where I seem to see darkness, let me proclaim the reality of light. Where I see laws opposed to God at work, let me declare them powerless. Thank You, Father, for the certainty of Your plan, the present reality of Your light.

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LESSON 89 • MARCH 30 (77) “I am entitled to miracles.” (78) “Let miracles replace all grievances.”

Practice instructions See instructions on page XXX.

Commentary “Because I am under no laws but God’s” (the laws of love and of extension, sharing, and giving), “I am entitled to miracles” (1:2). Giving of miracles is what God does, in accordance with His laws. The laws of grievances tell me I am not entitled to miracles. Every grievance I hold on to against a brother or sister is really my own mind telling me I do not deserve miracles; the very act of mental attack involved in holding a grievance makes me feel unworthy of them. Every grievance is hiding a miracle, and by letting the grievance go I release the miracle to happen. There is a reason why God gives me miracles: He gives them so that I can fulfill the function He has given me (1:5), to continue His extension, to allow Him to love through me. The Course is emphatic on the fact that only in finding my true function as God’s extension and fulfilling it can I be happy. My goal isn’t being blissed out; it is to receive so that I can give, to accept love so I can share love with others. Like a light bulb that receives electric current only so that it can shine forth with light, I receive the miracles of God to extend them to others. “I unite my will with the Holy Spirit’s” (3:2) today; I declare, “Let miracles replace all grievances” (3:1). I want all of my illusions to be replaced with truth. I want my grievances to be banished forever from my mind and replaced with miracles. As I sit quietly this morning I call people I know to mind and tell them, “Let our grievances be replaced by miracles” (4:3). I think of war-torn spots on the globe and say, “Let our grievances be replaced by miracles.” Today, I want to offer miracles to each one I meet. I want to be a channel of miracles; let me not block them with my grievances, Father. When something arises in my perception that seems like a cause for grievance or grief, let me remember: “Behind this is a miracle to which I am entitled” (2:2). Let me tell myself: “Seen truly, this offers

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me a miracle” (2:4). Everything is miracle fodder; nothing is without use in this classroom of miracles.

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LESSON 90 • MARCH 31 (79) “Let me recognize the problem so it can be solved.” (80) “Let me recognize my problems have been solved.”

Practice instructions See instructions on page XXX.

Commentary This review places a different slant on these two ideas than in the original lessons. There, the only problem was defined as separation. Here, more directly in sync with the preceding lessons about grievances, “the problem is always some form of grievance that I would cherish” (1:2). Of course there is a close relationship between separation and grievances. A grievance separates me from whatever or whoever I hold the grievance against. So we could see a grievance as a thought or belief that separates me from my brothers. Later in the Workbook the same thought is stated slightly differently, in terms of forgiveness or unforgiveness: “Certain it is that all distress does not appear to be but unforgiveness. Yet that is the content underneath the form” (W-pI.193.4:1–2). The problem is a grievance, or an unforgiveness. And it doesn’t always seem that way to us. Sometimes, when I feel distress of some sort, or experience what seems to me to be a problem, I cannot for the life of me see any grievance or unforgiveness in it. The ego is an expert at camouflage. It survives by trickery and misdirection: “How can it maintain the trick of its existence except with mirrors?” (T-4.IV.1:7). Its temptations to attack or to harbor unforgiveness are often so well disguised I don’t detect them as such, although it is “certain” that is what they are. The form deceives; the content is the same. When I come to the Holy Spirit with my problems or my distress, I must be willing to be shown the grievance or unforgiveness lurking in them. For me, so often, what I find is a form of grievance against myself, some form of self-judgment. Other times, I don’t understand the connection between my form of problem and forgiveness, but I assert my willingness to be shown, and I consciously choose a miracle for all concerned, including myself. “The problem is a grievance; the solution is a miracle” (1:5). If I can’t see the exact instance of unforgiveness in what I perceive as a problem, at least I can choose a miracle instead of the problem. That willingness is enough.

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The idea that the problem and the answer are “simultaneous in their occurrence” (3:4) seems strange. It seems “natural” to separate them by time: first the problem, then the answer. But if the problem is separation, or a grievance, the concept becomes easier to understand. God answered the separation with the Holy Spirit the instant the separation entered the mind of God’s Son (M-2.2:6). Every problem I perceive, therefore, has already been resolved before I perceive it. “It is impossible that I could have a problem which has not been solved already” (3:7), because separation—the only problem there ever is— has already been resolved. Therefore I don’t have to wait for circumstances to change; I can accept the peace of complete resolution now, without anything changing at all. “I need not wait for this to be resolved” (4:2). I have a long-standing relationship problem that, in time, has been going on for over fifteen years, and which shows no outward signs of resolution. The other party has absolutely no interest in—more properly, has an aversion to—talking with me, so resolution, within time, seems impossible. Yet I can let go of the tension this could produce in me. I can be free of the stigma of “an unhealed relationship.” In the holy instant I can know that problem, that rift in relationship, has already been healed. Down at the core of my mind and her mind, we are already one in love; everything has been forgiven. The disease of separation has already been inoculated, and the medicine of forgiveness is slowly and inexorably spreading through both of our minds, moving from the invisible sphere of spirit into the more concrete, thicker sphere of manifestation in the material world. There is no cause for concern. “It is the destiny of all relationships to become holy” (M-3.4:6). Today, I can recognize that this problem has already been solved. I believe my doing so speeds the day that healing will manifest in form. It may not be in this lifetime; what does that matter? The healing has already taken place. One thing I notice as I think this way about this relationship, even as I write: Accepting that the problem is already solved frees me from the temptation to blame the other person for her refusal to make peace. Aha! A grievance was there, wasn’t it, Allen? I accept a miracle in its place; thank You.

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LESSON 91 • APRIL 1 “Miracles are seen in light.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To briefly leave your weak, body-based image of yourself behind and have an experience of your real strength. In its light you will perceive the miracles that have always been there, waiting for you to see. Longer: Three times, for ten minutes. • Begin by repeating, “Miracles are seen in light. The body’s eyes do not perceive the light. But I am not a body. What am I?” Ask this final question in real honesty. With this question, you are calling on the strength in you to give you an experience of your reality, beyond the body. So ask with that intention. • Then spend several minutes listing your attributes as you see them, and allowing them to be replaced by their opposite. Say, for example, “I am not weak, but strong. I am not helpless, but powerful. I am not doubtful, but certain,” and so on. Focus specifically on attributes that involve weakness. • Then try to experience these truths about you, especially the experience of strength. Try to lift your faith in your body as central to your reality, for that is what makes you feel weak. Instruct your mind to instead go to the place of strength in you (this exercise appears to be a kind of meditation). Remember that your will has the power to do this. “You can escape the body if you choose. You can experience the strength in you” (5:5–6). You might want to use the beginning question, “What am I?” as a kind of mantra to take you to this place in you. • For the remainder, relax in the confidence that your weak efforts are fully supplemented by God’s strength, which joins you in your practice. His strength will carry you to the deep place in you where your strength and His light abide. Frequent reminders: Five or six per hour, at fairly regular intervals (every ten to fifteen minutes). Repeat the idea, which means that the miracle is always there if you will just open your eyes. This is a central idea in the thought system you are learning. That is why it needs such frequent repeating today. Response to temptation: Whenever you are tempted to be upset.

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Repeat, “Miracles are seen in light. Let me not close my eyes because of this.”

Commentary As the Workbook lessons get longer it won’t be practical to try to comment on everything in each lesson. That could be more than a person could write in a day; in fact, I have written a 48-page booklet on Lesson 135. (A Healed Mind Does Not Plan is the booklet title.) So I will be picking some aspect of the lesson that particularly speaks to me, and writing about that. The first idea, central to the lesson, is that “miracles and vision necessarily go together” (1:1). We are told this bears frequent repetition, and that it is central to our new thought system. The whole nature of what the Course means by a miracle is touched on here. A miracle is not really a change in anything outside of our mind; it is a change in perception, a “shift to vision”: As the ego would limit your perception of your brothers to the body, so would the Holy Spirit release your vision and let you see the Great Rays shining from them, so unlimited that they reach to God. It is this shift to vision that is accomplished in the holy instant. (T15.IX.1:1–2) “The miracle is always there” (1:4). What changes is our acceptance or rejection of vision; we either see it or we don’t. It is always present. What changes is our awareness. So to experience the miracle, we must have vision. We must let go of darkness in order to see the light. As the section titled “What Is a Miracle?” puts it: A miracle is a correction. It does not create, nor really change at all. It merely looks on devastation, and reminds the mind that what it sees i1 false. (W-pII.13.1:1– 3) 1. The “What Is” pages constitute a problem for the referencing scheme in  the Workbook. They are numbered 1 to 14, just like Lessons 1 to 14. To get  around this, Workbook references always contain a reference to the part of  the Workbook, Part I (pI) or Part II (pII). When you see a number 1­14  following “pII,” you can know it refers to one of the “What Is” sections.  This still does not make it easy to find! My solution is to remember the  number 210. That,  plus  ten times the number of the “What Is” section,  1

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The devastation is what we see with our eyes. The Course is very plainspoken about physical sight: “The body’s eyes do not perceive the light” (6:3). “You do not doubt that the body’s eyes can see. You do not doubt the images they show you are reality” (3:3–4). And yet the lesson is clearly asking us to do just that, to doubt that our eyes really see, and to doubt that what they see is real. We have to let go of the darkness to see the light, and what the body’s eyes show us is not light; therefore it must be darkness. We need a shift to a new kind of vision. This need to undo our faith in our eyes and what they see is part of the reason this lesson turns to a second idea: “I am not a body” (6:4ff). We are told to instruct our minds that we are not bodies. We are to will ourselves to realize that we are something else, something that does not see with the eyes, but in a different way. The exercises today are designed to help us realize that we are something other than a body; we are looking for a very concrete experience. In paragraph 7 we are told: “You need to be aware of what the Holy Spirit uses to replace the image of a body” (7:2). “You need to feel something to put your faith in” (7:3). “You need a real experience of something else” (7:4). An awareness, a feeling, an experience. There is something within us, a certain strength, “which makes all miracles within your easy reach” (4:4). We don’t realize how strong we are! And more than that: “Your efforts, however meager, are fully supported by the strength of God and all His Thoughts” (10:1). I always think of this by an analogy, something akin to sound waves or radio waves. When my little willingness strikes the right wavelength, I suddenly find myself joined by the harmony of the universe, a powerful beam of divine energy that resonates with me. If we can strike the right frequency of thought today, we will find that awareness, sense that feeling, and have that experience that takes us beyond the body, and into vision. Isn’t this worth ten minutes of effort, three times today? I know I think it is. Don’t be discouraged if you don’t feel anything, however. You will find vision. Your efforts today are not wasted, and do not think that if nothing seems to happen that you have “failed.” I remember learning to roller-skate. I started out by falling down a lot. If I had stopped then, thinking I’d failed, I would never have learned to skate. But I didn’t. I kept on falling down, and falling down again, until one day I gives you the number of the lesson that immediately precedes that section.  Thus, “W­pII.3” can be found just after Lesson 240 (210 plus 30).

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didn’t fall down. With spiritual vision, I’m still pretty much in the falling down stage myself. I’ve had some incredible experiences, holy instants, just as in the early days of skating there were times I went for blocks (skating on the sidewalk, jumping over the cracks) without falling, before I suddenly fell again. Consistent spiritual vision I don’t have as yet. But the miracle is always there, whether or not I see it! And my vision is improving each time I practice.

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LESSON 92 • APRIL 2 “Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To experience the light of strength in you, which will reveal to you the miracles that are always there. Longer: Two times—morning and evening, for twenty minutes. This exercise is another meditation, like you’ve been doing since Lesson 41. That’s why the instructions are so brief—it’s assumed that you know how to do this. Here, you try to sink to that deep place in your mind where light and strength meet, and where “your Self stands ready to embrace you as Its Own” (9:2). Seek this place and try to rest in the peace that waits for you there. Your sinking should not be all your own effort. “Let yourself be brought” (10:2) there; ask the truth to lead you there (this was emphasized in Lessons 69, 73, and 91). While going there, remember to draw your mind back from wandering as needed, and to carry an attitude of confidence, desire, and determination. Frequent reminders: As often as you can. Repeat the idea, recognizing you are being led away from the body’s blindness to the light of true sight, in which miracles are seen. Do it with a mindset of “I’m preparing myself for the evening practice period.” In this way, you can use the day to prepare yourself for a true holy instant at the end of the day.

Commentary The goal of this lesson seems to me to be finding “the meeting place of self and Self,” as it is put in 10:4. “It is God’s strength in you that is the light in which you see” (3:1). There is Something in me that is as far beyond what I think I am as the sun is beyond a match. There is an unimaginable vastness in me that, by these lessons, I am being led to discover. In the two twenty-minute practice periods today—the morning and evening “meetings” as they are referred to (11:2)—I am attempting to bring self to Self, to bring the match to the sun. I am trying to open the door to infinity within myself. This strength within me is mighty beyond the telling of it. It is “constant, sure as love, forever glad to give itself away” (8:1). Within me, my Self “stands ready to embrace [me] as Its Own” (9:2). I am a triple-A battery standing next to a nuclear power plant, about to plug

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in to endless power that ever renews itself. No, that image is too cold; it lacks the “embrace” spoken of. I am a tiny, fearful child, about to be swept up in the arms of the universal, endlessly compassionate and omnipotent Father/Mother/God. I think that perhaps the way a very young child sees its parents— huge, vast, all-knowing, totally worthy of trust, able to do anything— is perhaps a reflection of the truth of our relationship to God, and even our relationship to our own true Self. I find this lesson enormously encouraging. It tells me strength is the truth about me (4:7). Those are words worth many repetitions! Truth gives its strength to everyone who asks, in limitless supply (5:4). This light, this strength, “does not change and flicker and go out” (7:5). “No one can ask in vain to share its sight” (8:2). As a later lesson tells us, “No one can fail who seeks to reach the truth” (WpI.131.Heading). It does not matter how often I have tried and failed, or how long it has been since I have had a flicker of light in my mind, or how weak and puny seem the efforts of my heart; I cannot fail. I have the strength of God in me, and it will lead me to where I want to go. I come to the practice periods today with trust in that strength. God’s strength. My strength. I come to allow, just for this brief period, my self to meet my Self. I come to leave the darkness behind and let true vision, in the light, dawn upon my mind. I care not that it may not seem to last. I care not that my mind might seem dark before and dark after; for this instant, let me open to the light, and let it begin its work of leading me home. I bring my doubts, my fears, my open disbelief and expose them to this light, and in the light they disappear, and my heart floods with joy. I am being “led away from darkness to the light where only miracles can be perceived” (11:3).

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LESSON 93 • APRIL 3 “Light and joy and peace abide in me.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To go past your belief that you are sinful and evil, and to experience the sinless Self that God created as you. Longer: Every hour on the hour, for five minutes. • Repeat, “Light and joy and peace abide in me. My sinlessness is guaranteed by God.” I find it helpful to pause briefly after each quality (“Light...and joy...and peace...”) so that I can appreciate each one separately. • The remainder is a brief meditation, in which you try to reach past the false self that you made, which includes your whole sense of self and all your self-images. Reach deep within to the Self that God created as you, which is filled with light and joy and peace. Try to experience Its unity, and to appreciate Its holiness and Love. “Let It come into Its Own” (9:6). Remember to hold an attitude of confidence, desire, and determination, and to dispel distracting thoughts by repeating the idea. Alternate: On the hour, for at least one minute. Try to do the hourly five minutes whenever you can. When you are unable or unwilling, at least do the alternate: • Say, “Light and joy and peace abide in me. My sinlessness is guaranteed by God.” • Close your eyes and try to realize this is the truth about you. Response to temptation: Whenever a situation or person tempts you to be upset. 1. If a situation disturbs you, quickly say, “Light and joy and peace abide in me. My sinlessness is guaranteed by God.” 2. If a person seems to anger you, tell him silently, “Light and joy and peace abide in you. Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God.” Encouragement to practice: Today is the beginning of a bank of lessons in which you are asked to practice five minutes every waking hour. To help you rise to this challenge, these lessons contain a huge amount of encouragement to practice. You can see that encouragement in the final sentences of this lesson, which tell you that by doing today’s practice you can aid the world’s salvation, bring closer your

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own part in that salvation, and gain conviction that light and joy and peace really do abide in you.

Commentary The lead thought is very positive, reflecting the truth about me, but the first paragraph of the body of the lesson is quite dark, reflecting what the ego has taught me about myself, and taught very well. I think I am “the home of evil, darkness and sin” (1:1). To be sure, not many of us consciously think this about ourselves, and when such thoughts occur we quickly banish them. But the way I respond to myself betrays that this is, indeed, how I think about myself. Why else am I so protective of my “private thoughts,” for instance? Why am I apprehensive about self-examination and about looking at my inner motivations? Why am I afraid to leave the body and appear before God, when that possibility crosses my mind? I have deep-seated doubts about my own goodness and worth. Suppose I were to meet someone who could read my mind and know my every thought. Would I feel comfortable around such a person? Suppose everyone I met could read my every thought. Imagine I had to wear a helmet with a video screen above my forehead that pictured my thoughts for anyone to look at. How would I feel? I have no doubt that I would feel very, very uncomfortable and perhaps terrified, because there are many thoughts that cross my mind all the time that I would not care to have written on the wall for everyone to see. Even when I am reasonably confident of the harmlessness of my intentions, there are always subcurrents to my motivation that even I despise. My most benevolent acts are sometimes laced with a certain resentfulness or sense of sacrifice, and mixed with ulterior motives. Sometimes I am quite conscious of not trusting myself in certain situations. Every one of us, in the picture the Course paints, has this basic self-doubt. We secretly suspect, or even consciously believe, that we are not wholly trustworthy and not wholly good and loving. And as the lesson says, it is “difficult” (2:1) to dislodge these beliefs about ourselves, yet that is what the Course is all about—removing those blocks to the awareness of love’s presence, which is our natural inheritance (see T-In.1:7). The truth is that, in my innermost Self, I am wholly loving and wholly lovable (see T-1.III.2:3–4). Light and joy and peace abide in me; I am their home, and they remain with me forever as a creation of God. To begin to question my entrenched negative beliefs about

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myself (which is one way of defining what the Course calls “guilt”), and to begin to see myself as God created me, I need “a very different reference point” (3:1). I need to attain to a different state of mind. That is what the Holy Spirit does for me; that is what happens in the holy instant. The truth about me is “that all the evil that you think you did was never done, that all your sins are nothing, that you are as pure and holy as you were created, and that light and joy and peace abide in you” (4:1). We resist this message tenaciously, although it is wholly illogical to do so. As Spock in Star Trek points out, humans are not always logical. Our minds automatically raise up counterarguments to disprove our own innocence. Or we simply dismiss it as absurd, as “Pollyanna,” without even seriously considering it. Why? Because we think that to admit the truth of our innocence is death. We are so identified with this guilty self-image that to threaten it is to threaten our very existence, or so it seems. “But it is life” (4:3), not death. When the Spirit presents us with a picture of our innocence it terrifies us because it turns our whole world upside down and uproots our every frame of reference, all based on judgments we have made. It is frightening to think that we have been so totally mistaken about ourselves, even when the mistake has been to condemn ourselves and the unfamiliar truth is our own guiltlessness. One method this lesson uses, very evidently, to help uproot the old, guilty self-image is just to repeat, over and over and over, “Your sinlessness is guaranteed by God” (6:1, and six other times in the lesson). Frequent repetition is an excellent way to reprogram the mind, so we are asked to spend five minutes every hour, if we can, repeating these ideas and thinking about them, realizing that they are the truth about ourselves. “Light and joy and peace abide in me. My sinlessness is guaranteed by God” (8:2–3; 10:4–5). When it says this, the lesson does not mean that God guarantees to take us as poor, sinful creatures and make us sinless. That isn’t necessary because we were created sinless to begin with and retain that quality. I have never sinned; that is what the lesson is telling me. Oh, I think I have (and so do people who know me!), I believe I have, I am utterly convinced that I have, but I have never sinned. Mistakes, yes, but not sins, because there is no such thing. “To sin would be to violate reality, and to succeed” (T-19.II.2:2), and that simply is not possible. The Son of God can be mistaken; he can deceive himself; he can even turn the power of his mind against

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himself. But he cannot sin. There is nothing he can do that would really change his reality in any way, nor make him really guilty. (T-19.II.3:1–3) My sinlessness is guaranteed because I cannot sin; that’s simple logic. If something is impossible for me to do, it is a pretty sure bet that I won’t do it and never have done it. The exercises today are attempts to experience this one Self, this reality as God created it. It takes letting the other “self” go. Opening to the immensity of Love that is within us, floating in It, being surrounded by It, embraced by It. And then the most amazing thought: “Here you are; This is You” (9:7). This is You! This Love, this vastness, this infinite compassion—This is You! If you can, think of the most direct and dramatic experience you have ever had of God’s presence, or of the presence of love, and tell yourself, “That which I experienced in that moment, That is Me. That is what I am.”

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LESSON 94 • APRIL 4 “I am as God created me.”

Practice instructions Purpose: “To feel the truth in you” (3:1); to experience your true Self. Longer: Every hour on the hour, for five minutes. • Say, “I am as God created me. I am His Son eternally.” • The remainder is again a brief meditation, in a slightly new format. First, lay aside your self-images—“the list of attributes, both good and bad, you have ascribed to yourself” (4:1). Then “wait in silent expectancy” (4:1) for your true Self to be revealed to you. Wait confidently, knowing that God has promised you this revelation. This waiting means holding your mind in stillness, empty of specifics yet filled with the expectancy that Who you really are will dawn on you. When your mind wanders, repeat the idea to return your mind to this expectant waiting. This appears to me to be the first example of what I call Open Mind Meditation, which will become the Workbook’s crowning method of meditation. In this technique, you consciously set aside your normal thoughts and beliefs, and then hold your mind in stillness, waiting for the truth to dawn on you. For examples, see the introduction to Review V, paragraph 12; and Lesson 189, paragraph 7. Alternate: On the hour. If you do not do the five minutes on the hour, at least repeat, “I am as God created me. I am His Son eternally.” This practice of spending a minute or so with the idea, if you can’t do the full five minutes, will apply to all the five-minute-per-hour lessons. Frequent reminders: Frequently. Repeat the idea, in original or expanded form. Response to temptation: Whenever someone seems to irritate you. Be certain to respond with, “You are as God created you. You are His Son eternally.” Encouragement to practice: You are urged to “make every effort to do the hourly exercises today” (5:8). “Each one you do,” you are promised, “will be a giant stride toward your release” (5:9). If you let that line sink in, you will find that it is a tremendous motivator to

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practice. That line also means that this lesson is another of the Workbook’s giant strides (the first ones were 61 and 66). This is appropriate because “I am as God created me” is the Workbook’s premier lesson. It is repeated in 110, 162, and all through the twentyday Review VI.

Commentary This lesson continues with the thought introduced yesterday: “Salvation requires the acceptance of but one thought;—you are as God created you, not what you made of yourself” (W-pI.93.7:1). The Course places a significant emphasis on this single idea. It is the only idea used as the main theme of more than one lesson; it is the lead thought of this lesson, Lesson 110, and Lesson 162. It was introduced in the Text (T-31.VIII.5:2). It is a subtheme in Lessons 132 and 139, and Review VI has us repeating every day for twenty days, “I am not a body. I am free. For I am still as God created me.” You sort of get the feeling that Jesus wants us to get this idea and get it good. Read over the first paragraph of this lesson and you will see just how important this idea is in the Course’s curriculum: it is called “the one idea which brings complete salvation” (1:1). So. Why is this single, simple idea so very important? Just this: our entire “problem” lies in our belief that, even if God created me whole and complete, somehow I have screwed that up. Somehow I have lost it, blown it, destroyed it, or corrupted myself. “I am as God created me” asserts that none of this is true. God created me whole, and “I am as God created me.” I am still whole. I am still holy. I am still sinless and guiltless. To think that we can change what God created and corrupt it is the height of arrogance; it asserts that our power is greater than God’s, that we can un-create what He created. If God created us wholly loving and wholly lovable, then we are still that, no matter what we think, no matter what we may believe we have done. We are not what we made of ourselves; we are still what God created. “If you remain as God created you, you must be strong and light must be in you” (2:2). So we “stand in light, strong in the sinlessness in which [we] were created” (2:6). That is the truth about us, and the Course is all about undoing any belief we may have that contradicts it and denies the truth. Today’s practice, once again, asks for “the first five minutes of each waking hour” (3:1) as times in which we attempt to feel the truth in ourselves, and to reach the Son of God in ourselves. This practice

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of five minutes each hour, begun yesterday, is going to continue for another sixteen lessons through Lesson 110, so get used to it. This is probably the most intense extended practice the Workbook demands; after Lesson 110 it settles down to a morning and evening period with shorter hourly remembrances. As you will see, nearly all of these eighteen lessons from 93 to 110 are variations on the theme of reaching the Christ within, the true Self, me as God created me. Realize how important this is, and make a real effort to do the hourly practices, rearranging your day as necessary if you can. Remember, though, that yesterday’s lesson told us that we may not want, or even be able, to do this, and if our motivation is not so high, it suggested that we at least spend one minute per hour reviewing the idea for the day. Recognize also that the Workbook would hardly include eighteen lessons on the same basic theme and format if it expected you to “get it” perfectly in the first one. Getting in touch with our one Self takes practice, and that is what the lessons are for. The Text refers to the benefits of practicing “the mechanics of the holy instant” (T-15.II.5:4) even when you don’t actually “feel the truth in you” (3:1) every time; practicing the mechanics, going through the motions as it were, is what brings the reality of the holy instant closer every time we do it. It asserts your willingness to receive the grace God wants to give you; it breaks down your resistance, which is the only thing keeping the one Self from your awareness. The closing words of the lesson emphasize the importance of this practice: Make every effort to do the hourly exercises today. Each one you do will be a giant stride toward your release, and a milestone in learning the thought system which this course sets forth. (5:8–9) So join me in a serious attempt to do as these lessons tell us to do. Remember the admonitions of the introduction to the Workbook (italics are my emphasis): It is doing the exercises that will make the goal of the course possible. (W-In.1:2) You are merely asked to apply the ideas as you are directed to do. You are not asked to judge them at all. You are asked only to use them. It is their use that will

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give them meaning to you, and will show you that they are true. (W-In.8:3–6) Do not allow yourself to make exceptions in applying the ideas the workbook contains, and whatever your reactions to the ideas may be, use them. Nothing more than that is required. (W-In.9:4–5)

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LESSON 95 • APRIL 5 “I am one Self, united with my Creator.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To attempt again to reach your one Self. “In patience and in hope we try again today” (3:3). Longer: Every hour on the hour, for five minutes (if you cannot do this, at least do the alternate). • Say with all the certainty you can give, “I am one Self, united with my Creator, at one with every aspect of creation, and limitless in power and in peace.” You’ll probably need to keep your eyes open in order to read the line. • Close your eyes and repeat, “I am one Self.” Say this several times, “slowly and thoughtfully, attempting to allow the meaning of the words to sink into your mind” (11:3). Saying it in this way will allow it to have a much greater effect on you. • The remainder is a meditation in which you try to reach your one Self, which is perfectly united within Itself, perfectly joined with all your brothers, and perfectly at one with God. “Feel this one Self in you, and let It shine away all your illusions and your doubts” (13:3). Draw upon all the training you’ve received in Workbook meditation. Frequent reminders: As frequently as possible. There are two forms of this frequent practice: 1. Repeat the idea. Realize that every time you do, healing enters someone’s mind out there. 2. Say silently to everyone you meet, “You are one Self with me, united with our Creator in this Self. I honor you because of What I am, and What He is, Who loves us both as one.” Applying the idea to everyone you meet is an important practice, which you have previously done in Lessons 37, 43, and 78. Encouragement to practice: Here on our third day of the fiveminutes-per-hour practice, we are given an extended explanation as to why this practice schedule is so important right now. First, you need shorter practice periods. Otherwise, your mind will wander all over the place, which you probably noticed in those ten to fifteen minute practice periods. Second, you need frequent practice periods. When there were only two longer practice periods a day, you probably tended to forget the shorter ones (frequent reminders and response to

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temptation). With the longer ones now being more frequent, you will be more likely to remember the shorter ones. Third, you need regular practice periods. Having them scheduled at these fixed, regular intervals will make you more likely to practice, given how resistant you are to practicing. For all these reasons, he urges you to omit as few of these as possible. The key to carrying this out is how you respond when you’ve missed one. Missing a practice period is simply a mistake, that’s all. The way to respond to this mistake is to correct it—which means to get back to your practicing. The danger, however, is that you’ll regard this mistake as a real sin. This takes the form of you deciding that you’ve so hopelessly screwed up that you might as well give up for the day. Sound familiar? This is a subtle ploy of the ego. It is terrified of what your practice will bring: the realization of your Self. Its fear is what caused you to miss that practice period in the first place. Now it has convinced you that since you missed once, you should keep on missing more. It has successfully nullified the threat of your practice by convincing you not to practice. The solution is to regard your initial missed practice period as a mere mistake and forgive yourself for it. It was no big deal, just a moment of weakness. Seeing it as a moment of weakness deprives it of power. Now it no longer has the power to dictate everything that comes after it, to make your day over in its likeness. Now you simply correct it; you just get back to your practice. This, by the way, is the Workbook’s consistent counsel on how to deal with missed practice periods. Do your utmost to implement this counsel, starting today. “Do not forget today” (you are told this twice, in 14:1 and 14:6). Heaven needs the healing thoughts you will send out to the world with today’s practice. It is confident you will try today, so you can be confident, too.

Commentary This lesson is one of my favorites, because it acknowledges both my reality and the lowly image I have made of myself. It affirms my greatness without denying my illusion of weakness. It holds up the exalted picture of my “one Self…at one with every aspect of creation, and limitless in power and in peace” (11:2). But it does so in the context of speaking about my “lapses in diligence” and my “failures to follow the instructions for practicing” (8:3). It makes me realize

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that, somehow, this lofty vision of my Self is not incompatible with my stumbling, bumbling attempts to follow this course. It lets me know that my mistakes do not negate the truth about me. If anyone doubts what I said yesterday—that the overall intent of these next sixteen lessons is to reach inward to an experience of our one Self, and that the Workbook attaches a great deal of importance to disciplined practice as a means of attaining that experience—let him or her simply read this lesson several times. You can’t miss the message, and I can’t say it more clearly than the lesson says it: Structure, then, is necessary for you at this time. (6:1) Do not forget today….try today…Be vigilant. Do not forget today. Throughout the day do not forget your goal. (14:1, 3, 5–7) The lesson seems to be talking about two such disparate things. On the one hand, myself as God created me, my perfect unity. On the other hand, the emphasis on regimented, very specific, structured practice, every hour on the hour for five minutes. If I am perfect, why do I need all this discipline? Why not just affirm the truth about myself and be done with it? We need the practice just because we do not believe the truth about ourselves. We have all these hidden warriors in our minds, the subtle and deceitful manipulators of consciousness planted by the ego that keep us from full awareness. Beware of telling yourself you aren’t doing the disciplined practice because you don’t need it. Show me you don’t need it by doing it, and maybe I’ll believe you. You don’t just sit down at a piano and play Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 right off the bat; you start with scales. Scales aren’t great music but they are the necessary way to it. Just so, “Regularity in terms of time [playing scales] is not the ideal requirement for the most beneficial form of practice in salvation [the concerto]. It is advantageous, however, for those whose motivation is inconsistent, and who remain heavily defended against learning” (6:2–3). That’s me; I don’t know about you, but that’s me. The beauty of this kind of repetitive practice is that it discloses all the tricks of the ego that keep us from God. Just do it, like the Nike ad says, and you’ll begin to realize how many resistant strains of antispiritual virus exist in the maze of your mind, how many ways you have invented to keep you away from knowing your Self. That is one of the primary purposes of the practice:

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You have seen the extent of your lack of mental discipline, and of your need for mind training. It is necessary that you be aware of this. (4:4–5) We have to be aware of our need before we can recognize the solution that has already been given us. We have to discover the “self divided into many warring parts” (2:2) before we can acknowledge the “perfect unity” (1:4) of our reality. So this practice will uncover our need, and expose the ego; that’s good, that’s what it is supposed to do. But that isn’t all. Yes, part of the intent is that we learn to forgive ourselves for failures. But the purpose is not to fail and then forgive. The purpose is to fail, forgive, and then do it. To say to yourself, “Oh, of course I didn’t do the practice today; I’m supposed to fail,” is just another way to refuse to let your mistake be corrected. It is unwillingness to try again. To allow a mistake to continue is to make additional mistakes, based on the first and reinforcing it. It is this process that must be laid aside, for it is but another way in which you would defend illusions against the truth. (9:3–4) In other words, accepting failure is not the goal—it is what has to be laid aside. Both the failure to practice and allowing the failure to continue “are attempts to keep you unaware you are one Self” (10:2). One Self, with one purpose: “to bring awareness of this oneness to all minds, that true creation may extend the Allness and the Unity of God” (12:2). Let me give myself to this process, knowing my true purpose, recognizing I am in training to awaken mankind along with me. Let me take these minutes out of each hour to become aware of Who I am. “It is given you to feel this Self within you” (13:5). I want that; today, Father. I want to let go of my shabby illusions and feel the extent and power of my true Self, given me by You. I want to forget my belief in my littleness, even if only for a few seconds each hour, and to continually bring myself these reminders (since I am so quick to forget) until the awareness dawns in permanence on my mind, never again to be forgotten. So be it.

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LESSON 96 • APRIL 6 “Salvation comes from my one Self.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To find the thought of salvation deep within your mind, and let it restore your mind to its true function of blessing all minds. Longer: Every hour on the hour, for five minutes (if you cannot do this, at least do the alternate). • Say, “Salvation comes from my one Self. Its thoughts are mine to use.” • The remainder seems to be a combination of meditation (in which you try to contact your real thoughts, as in Lesson 45) and listening to the Holy Spirit (in which you listen for spiritual teaching, as in Lesson 76). Search deep within your mind for the presence of the Holy Spirit. He is there to speak to you your true thoughts, the thoughts of your true Self; in particular, the thought of salvation. If you succeed, thoughts will come to you telling you that you are saved and you can save. These thoughts are more than just information; they will fill your mind with strength, enabling it to bless all minds. Remember the training you’ve received both in meditation and in listening to the Holy Spirit: Hold your mind in a state of quiet attentiveness, listen in confidence, and draw your mind back from wandering when necessary. Frequent reminders: As often as possible. Repeat the idea. While you do, imagine that you are laying another treasure in your treasure house, a treasure you can claim anytime you want. If you will, go ahead and repeat the idea in this fashion now. Encouragement to practice: You may feel uncertain of success today, but your Self knows you cannot fail. Your practice will bring joy to It, and It will save this joy for you, storing it in your treasure house until you are ready to take it out and experience it.

Commentary “Although you are one Self, you experience yourself as two” (1:1). Experiencing ourselves as divided is a universal experience. Even the very practice of these lessons makes it evident to us: on the one hand, we want to do the practice because we want to go to God, we want enlightenment; on the other hand, when the hour comes and it is time

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to take our five minutes, something in us resists doing it. It seems as if there are two selves in us, one “good” and the other “bad,” one wanting the light and the other holding on to the darkness. Most of my life I lived with this, believing my experience was the truth. Something in me, however, told me it was not so. How could I be two selves? How could I have two natures, as my Christian background taught me (flesh and spirit)? It didn’t make sense. The nature of something, of anything, is always one. The Course explains that one, spirit, is real; the other, the separated self that experiences being a body, is unreal, nothing more than a figment of my imagination. I am not divided, and all evidence to the contrary is a trick of the mind, a self-deception. Based on the illusion of being split into opposites, the mind has “sought many…solutions” (1:3). It has been duped into believing in the reality of this split, and the reality of physical being. Therefore it occupies itself endlessly trying to make things work, and they never do. The mind becomes the servant of the body, trying to devise ways to make the body comfortable, to pleasure it, to make it last forever, to keep it safe from harm. In doing this, the mind has lost its true function. Our one Self is spirit. In its preoccupation with the body the mind has, for the most part, lost sight of spirit. It needs to regain its true function of serving spirit: “Spirit makes use of mind as means to find its Self expression” (4:1). This is what brings us peace and fills the mind with joy, while serving the body brings it nothing but conflict and pain. The thoughts of spirit seek expression through our minds; that is what minds are for. The Holy Spirit is an agent of divine Help, bringing the mind back to its true function of serving spirit. He is the representative of spirit, of our Self, to our minds, constantly calling us to set aside this futile fumbling for salvation in the realm of the physical and to open our minds to spirit. “If you are spirit, then the body must be meaningless to your reality” (3:7). Because we have dissociated our minds from their true function, we think we are alone and separate. We need a Helper Who reminds us of our true connection to spirit. Our spirit—our Self—“retains Its thoughts, and they remain within your mind and in the Mind of God” (7:1). We remain, in spirit, as God created us. So we are not trying to change what our minds are, but rather change the purpose they serve. We are seeking, in these exercises, to reconnect to spirit, to set aside for five minutes the thoroughly distracting problems of the physical beings we think we are, and to open ourselves to these thoughts of spirit, to allow our

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minds to find their function as channels for spirit. “Restored in strength, it [the mind] will again flow out from spirit to the spirit in all things created by the Spirit as Itself. Your mind will bless all things” (10:3–4). That is our function; that is what we were created for. “The extension of God’s Being is spirit’s only function” (T-7.IX.3:1). So I am rediscovering myself as an extender of God’s Being. God is Love and so I love. God creates, so I create, which here on earth is expressed as healing, as restoring creation to its natural state. This “Self” that the Course is talking about is not something apart from me; it is me. Talking about seeking the thoughts of my one Self almost makes it seem as if the Self is this separate Being I am seeking to communicate with. But the Self is me. “Here you are; This is You,” as it said in Lesson 93 (W-pI.93.9:7). We are bringing the mind into contact with our spirit, but it is already me; the light is already in me, the thoughts I am “seeking” are my own thoughts I have dissociated right out of my mental awareness. What we are asked to practice here is not described in great detail. You may be asking yourself, “What is it we are waiting for as we sit for five minutes?” And I can’t tell you; no one can. You will know when you find it. The lesson recognizes that we may not “connect” today; it uses words like “if you succeed” (10:1, emphasis mine) and “perhaps your mind remains uncertain yet a while” (11:2) It tells us not to be “dismayed” (11:3) if this is so. Relax with it, be patient. Do the exercises anyway. Every time you do your Self rejoices, even if that joy does not penetrate yet into your conscious mind, and it saves the joy, ready to bring it to you in full awareness when you do “succeed” and become certain of your one Self.

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LESSON 97 • APRIL 7 “I am spirit.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To bring reality still closer to your mind. To bring your mind out of the conflict of a split identity into the peace of identifying with your one Self. Longer: Every hour on the hour, for five minutes (if you cannot do this, at least do the alternate). • Give the practice period happily to the Holy Spirit. Begin by saying, “Spirit am I, a holy Son of God, free of all limits, safe and healed and whole, free to forgive, and free to save the world.” • The remainder appears to be the same practice as yesterday, a combination of meditation and listening to the Holy Spirit. Sink to the deep place in your mind where the Holy Spirit dwells. If you reach this place, “He will speak to you, reminding you that you are spirit” (8:2). He will help you understand Who you really are. Keep in mind that He will be using your practice period to carry healing around the world. The deeper you go, the more healing He can distribute. Frequent reminders: As often as you can. Say, “Spirit am I, a holy Son of God, free of all limits, safe and healed and whole, free to forgive, and free to save the world.” Then take a moment and listen for the Holy Spirit’s assurance that these words are true. Response to temptation: Whenever you are tempted to yield to the belief that you are not spirit. Repeat, “Spirit am I, a holy Son of God, free of all limits, safe and healed and whole, free to forgive, and free to save the world.” Encouragement to practice: Every time you practice your mind comes closer to reality. This lesson makes the amazing claim that in some practice periods you save a thousand years. This is because the Holy Spirit takes the healing thoughts you generate in your exercises and carries them around the world, laying them in every mind that is open to the healing they bring. Each mind that accepts them reinforces them, so that through this process, these thoughts become multiplied in power millions of times. The result is that, when the Holy Spirit gives them back to you, your five minutes can indeed become a

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thousand years. This is obviously a huge incentive to practice, for you can not only immensely speed your own journey, but you can also bring healing to people across the world.

Commentary The one Self the Course speaks of is spirit. To affirm, “I am spirit” is to let go of all illusions of a split identity, of a good and bad self, and of all attempts we might make to somehow reconcile the ego self that is bound to a body with the spiritual self that is unlimited by a body. The “nondualism” of the Course is not of the nature that says, “Everything is one because all apparent opposites are really opposite poles of a unity.” It does not achieve a concept of unity by somehow uniting the opposites; teaching, for example, that evil and pain are somehow all part of the One. Instead, the Course affirms unity by declaring that all that seems to be opposed to holiness and love is nothing more than illusion and does not exist. “What is allencompassing can have no opposite,” declares the Course’s introduction (T-In.1:8). We are being asked to “know your Self as love which has no opposite in you” (W-pI.99.9:8). “Love can have no opposite” (W-pII.259.2:3). The Course makes great use of repetition; apparently it firmly believes that repeating the same idea over and over can have great benefits. We are told to “practice this truth today as often as you can” (1:4). Why the emphasis on repetition? Because “each time you practice, awareness is brought a little nearer at least” (3:2). You may not achieve astounding breakthroughs; if you are like most people, probably most of the time you won’t. But every now and then, “a thousand years or more are saved” (3:2). For those who think the Course teaches an instant salvation, I’d just like to point out something about that last line. If we can save a thousand years sometimes as we practice, what does that imply about the length of time the whole journey might take? If we are chopping thousand-year segments out of it, how long is the whole thing? It has to be at least a thousand years and a day, right? I don’t mean to be depressing about this; the Course presents itself as a means of saving time, and clearly teaches that any of us could wake up at any moment we choose to do so. But the implication is pretty clear that it can take thousands of years to get us to the point of willingness to wake up. So we should not be expecting overnight enlightenment; neither should we not be expecting it. The attitude towards time that is encouraged

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by the Course is unconcern about it, since it is ultimately part of the illusion. “Atonement might be equated with a total escape from the past and total lack of interest in the future” (M-24.6:3). When we make our little effort of five minutes for God, the Holy Spirit joins all of His strength with us (4:3). He takes the little we give and carries it around the world to every open mind. The gifts we give to Him are multiplied by Him ten million times (a thousandfold and tens of thousands more, 6:1). Take that literally or as a figure of speech, it doesn’t matter, the meaning is the same; what we give to Him is multiplied and spread to millions of minds because all minds are joined. When I practice, I am not practicing for myself alone; my awakening mind stirs every mind. When you sit quietly for five minutes, you are saving the world. For each little bit we give, we receive it back multiplied ten million times. “It will surpass in might the little gift you gave as much as does the radiance of the sun outshine the tiny gleam a firefly makes” (6:2). Does this sort of practice matter? You bet it does! When I remember what this lesson says, my time spent remembering “Spirit am I, a holy Son of God” (7:2) seems so much more meaningful and important. It isn’t just little me struggling to do my meager practice; it is the Son of God remembering Himself. It is the awakening of the Christ in all mankind.

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LESSON 98 • APRIL 8 “I will accept my part in God’s plan for salvation.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To firmly and happily dedicate yourself to taking your part in God’s plan for salvation; to really take a stand on this today. Longer: Every hour on the hour, for five minutes (if you cannot do this, at least do the alternate). This practice strikes me as similar to the practice you did in Lesson 77. There, you repeated, “I am entitled to miracles” and then waited for the Holy Spirit to give His assurance that these words are true. Here, in this lesson, you repeat, “I will accept my part in God’s plan for salvation” and then expect the Holy Spirit to infuse your words with His certainty, so that you really do accept your part. Throughout the practice period, keep repeating the idea, and let Him make every repetition a total dedication, made with deep conviction, sincerity, certainty, and full understanding. Let Him turn a mere repeating of “I will accept my part in God’s plan for salvation” into an actual accepting of your part. That is your goal for today, to use these practice periods to take a stand, to use them to accept your part in God’s plan. Frequent reminders: Often. Repeat the idea. Try to think of each hour as preparation time for your next five-minute practice period. “Repeat [the idea] often, and do not forget each time you do so, you have let your mind be readied for the happy time to come” (10:3). Encouragement to practice: Paragraphs 5 and 6 are a rousing pep talk. They ask the question: Is it not worth five minutes an hour to receive a limitless reward? I recommend reading these paragraphs over slowly and thoughtfully, letting their questions and promises do their intended work in you. Paragraphs 2 through 4 also contain wonderful encouragement. They tell us that by embracing our part in God’s plan—which is the point of today’s practice—we can lay aside all our doubts and find true certainty of purpose. They tell us that those who have done that will be with us in our practice, helping us to take the same stand they did. And these paragraphs also tell us that our stand will help others in taking theirs, which will in turn reinforce ours (as we were told in yesterday’s lesson).

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Commentary Today is a day of special dedication. We take a stand on but one side today. We side with truth and let illusions go. We will not vacillate between the two, but take a firm position with the One. (1:1–4) How happy to be certain! All our doubts we lay aside today, and take our stand with certainty of purpose, and with thanks that doubt is gone and surety has come. (2:1–2) Perhaps as I read these lines about certainty, I find myself doubting that very certainty. “Am I certain?” The thought surely arises. Perhaps I feel as if I don’t belong with this lesson. My ego reminds me slyly that I am not beyond vacillation. How can I say, “Doubt is gone”? Yet even in the words of the lesson is the recognition of my condition: “All our doubts we lay aside today” (2:2). Yes, doubts are there. Of course they are. Jesus knows that. He is only suggesting that in these five minutes we spend with him, we lay them aside. Just put them down and be without them for a few minutes. See what it is like. You can doubt later if you want; for now, see how happy it is to be certain. Within me there is a place that is always certain. It has never doubted. It cannot doubt because it knows. This is my true Self. The doubts are thoughts that question the reality of that Self, the reality of the part of me that is certain, which is the only real part. I am brought by this lesson to question my questioning. I am brought to listen to the certainty, the eternal silence of spirit which knows. When I am willing, even for a moment, to lay aside my doubts, to still the nattering mind, the yama yama of my idle thoughts, I encounter a still sureness. It is not a certainty of ideas and words; it is an assurance of being, a majestic calm. The stillness is beyond space and time. It has nothing to do with the drama played on this planet. It is of this we speak today. It is of those who know to touch this eternal calm of which the lesson says: They rest in quiet certainty that they will do what is given them to do. They do not doubt their own ability because they know their function will be filled completely in the perfect time and place. (3:3–4)

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I take my stand with those who, before me, have come to this place. It is the same place for all of us. It is the same Self we come to know. And I know, in that holy instant, that if one has been here before me, all will come to find it. If one has been here—and I know that many have been here—all will be here, for one could not come unless it were the reality for all. The nature of this place, this quiet certainty, is a shared nature. It could not be here for me if it were not here for you as well. It could not have been there for Jesus if it were not also here for me. They will be with us; all who took the stand we take today will gladly offer us all that they learned and every gain they made. Those still uncertain, too, will join with us, and, borrowing our certainty, will make it stronger still. While those as yet unborn will hear the call we heard, and answer it when they have come to make their choice again. We do not choose but for ourselves today. (4:1–4) In the center of the storm of doubts and uncertainty there is an eye of calm. The storm rages on. We still can perceive it. Yet here, here, we are calm. We are quiet. We rest. Of course you have doubts and uncertainty. That is what you are supposed to notice as you do this lesson! Just for the moment, be willing to have them disappear. There is One within you who is always certain, and He is you; you have forgotten that. Let yourself, however briefly, identify with His certainty, and let go of your identification with the doubts. Make that choice; this is all that is asked. He will give the words you use in practicing today’s idea the deep conviction and the certainty you lack. His words will join with yours, and make each repetition of today’s idea a total dedication, made in faith as perfect and as sure as His in you. His confidence in you will bring the light to all the words you say, and you will go beyond their sound to what they really mean. (7:2–4) “Give Him the words, and He will do the rest” (9:1). A wonderful statement! He is simply asking you to say your faltering “Yes.” You are not being asked to turn your doubt into faith. He will do that. “My part in God’s plan” is very simple: acceptance. My part is not an active role, but passive. It is to be willing to receive, and that is all.

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My part is to say, “Okay. Yes. I will accept.” Give Him those words; that is all. He will respond with all His faith and joy and certainty that what you say is true. Over and over through the day, over and over throughout life, give Him those words: “I will accept my part. Yes.” This is surrender. This is all we do. There is nothing else to do. So simple. So difficult to be so simple. So difficult to stop trying to make it on our own. Let go, and let God. “Yes, God. Yes, Holy Spirit. I accept my part.” Tell Him once more that you accept the part that He would have you take and help you fill, and He will make sure you want this choice, which He has made with you and you with Him. Perhaps I’m not sure I want it. But He will make sure I want it. Come to Him just as you are, with all your doubts, all your fears. Just come. J2st say, “Yes. I accept.”

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1. Just a note of interest: There is a poetic meter called iambic pentameter, which consists of lines of ten syllables, with alternating soft and hard emphasis: da-DAH da-DAH da-DAH da-DAH da-DAH. You should be able to detect that, after the title and first line, most (but not quite all) of today’s lesson is written in that meter. We take a stand on but one side today. We side with truth and let illusions go. We will not vacillate between the two, but take a firm position with the One. Tomorrow’s lesson begins the first full lesson in iambic pentameter, and the entire rest of the Workbook, with minor exceptions, follows suit.

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LESSON 99 • APRIL 9 “Salvation is my only function here.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To fulfill your only function by letting your dark thoughts be brought out of hiding to meet with the light of God’s Thought, so that your darkness is replaced by His light. Longer: Every hour on the hour, for five minutes (if you cannot do this, at least do the alternate). • Say, “Salvation is my only function here. Salvation and forgiveness are the same.” • Then invite the Holy Spirit into your mind and ask Him to search out the dark and secret places in your mind—thoughts, beliefs, and goals that you wish to keep hidden, either from yourself or from others. When one comes to light, repeat the Thought, “God still is Love, and this is not His will.” Let the light in this Thought shine away your darkened thought; let it bring you to a forgiveness of that thought. Thus will that darkened place be filled with light. Then begin the process again: Let the Holy Spirit’s light search out another dark, hidden thought. Then again repeat, “God still is Love, and this is not His will,” and let this Thought forgive and shine away the darkness, replacing it with light. While going through this process, occasionally reflect on the meaning of “God still is Love, and this is not His Will.” It means that this world of pain is not His Will. It means that God wills that you are His Son, at one with Him. Frequent reminders: In between hourly practice periods. Repeat the idea, realizing that by doing so you invite forgiveness to replace your fears and invite love into your mind, which will reveal to you that you are God’s Son. Response to temptation: Whenever some appearance tempts you to give in to fear and doubt. Say, “Salvation is my only function here. God still is Love, and this is not His Will.” Realize that this special message “has the power to remove all forms of doubt and fear...Remember that appearances can not withstand the truth these mighty words contain” (11:1–2).

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Commentary Today we will just comment on a few ideas from this lesson. Unshaken does the Holy Spirit look on what you see: on sin and pain and death, on grief and separation and on loss. Yet does He know one thing must still be true: God is still Love, and this is not His Will. (5:4–5) We see sin and pain and death. We see grief and separation and loss. We think these things are real. What is worse, we believe them to be God’s Will. If we attribute this world and its creation to God, these things must be, by implication, God’s Will. He created them. If we believe He created the world we must believe that, even if the belief is not conscious. At the very least we believe He willingly created the potential for all this suffering and loss, and somehow planned for us to go through it all. Much Christian teaching has been very explicit about this. A loved one dies prematurely. We are overcome with an agony of grief and loss, and some well-intentioned friend tries to comfort us with the thought, “It was God’s Will.” What comfort is that? What does it do but place the blame for our agony on God? What does it do but make God into a monster, an object of fear or even hatred? Sin, pain, death, grief, separation, and loss are not God’s Will. They never have been. Such a belief stems from a covert belief that God has it in for us, that He is punishing us for our sins. To hold such a belief we must also hold a belief that we deserve this awful experience. This is the instant of our belief in separation from God being played out on the stage of the world. You and I have thought that God wanted this for us. He wanted us to be in this world of pain. Sometimes we have agreed with what we thought of Him, agreed that we deserved to suffer. Sometimes we have angrily denied we deserved it, and accused Him of being unfair. Often we have simply been bewildered, pitifully wondering what we did to deserve all this; sure we must have done something, but at a loss as to what it might be. Somehow we have never considered this thought: All the world of pain is not His Will. Forgive yourself the thought He wanted this for you. (7:4–5) The essence of our anguish, the element that lends it exquisite sharpness, is the underlying thought that God wants it for us. What cuts deepest is the hidden belief that God is the source of this pain. He

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Whom my heart loves, and loves uncontrollably, has willed this for me. It is my Father Who inflicts this pain. We huddle in our suffering and grief, hopeless and lost because we think it is God’s Will. “This is not His Will,” Jesus tells us. “Forgive yourself the thought He wanted this for you.” How could we think this of God? How could we believe He is so vengeful? We do not yet realize, yet will discover it so if we grant ourselves this forgiveness, that it is only this thought about God that grants to pain all its power over us. When grief tears at us, fear grips us, or a deep sense of loss seems to shred our very soul, if we will allow ourselves to turn to the Holy Spirit and hear Him say, “This is not His Will. God does not want this for you,” we will find it possible to forgive ourselves for thinking it was so. The moment we do, the vitality of pain is removed. “God does not want this for me. This is not from Him.” The pain becomes—something else. It is not God Who wills this pain for us. It is ourselves. We believe God punishes because we believe we deserve punishment. We experience life as pain because we are unconsciously punishing ourselves. We are not talking here of the event we think has caused our pain or fear: the death of the loved one, the apparent loss of love, the physical suffering. We are talking primarily of the mental-emotional context in which we are holding it. This is an internal thing. This anguish, this pain of grief, this terror—this is not His Will for you. We suffer so incredibly because, all unconscious, we accept most of life as a punishment. A chastisement. A penalty for being the awful thing we think we are. Because we believe the bite of pain is His Will, we cannot take it to Him for comfort. He is its Source, we think, so we flee from Him. We deny ourselves the relief of His loving Presence. In that Presence we can find our Self. We can look on our own essence and “look upon no obstacle to what He wills for you” (8:3). Then turn to Him Who shares your function here, and let Him teach you what you need to learn to lay all fear aside, and know your Self as love which has no opposite in you. (9:8) “Forgive yourself the thought He wanted this for you.” Bring your pain to Jesus. Pain is not God’s Will for you. The experience you are going through can become a doorway to infinite release if you let

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down your defenses against God. His Presence can transform your experience of pain into one of joy. It can be a path to knowing your Self as Love. Such seems impossible to us, but then, miracles always seem impossible. Let down the defenses. God is not angry. He does not want this pain for you. Uncoil from your tight fear of Him. Shrink not from His touch. Forgive yourself the thought that He inflicted this on you. Let Him show you your Self as He sees it, and open to His healing Love.

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LESSON 100 • APRIL 10 “My part is essential to God’s plan for salvation.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To experience the happiness that is God’s Will for you; to understand that infecting others with your happiness is how you fulfill your part in the global plan for salvation. Longer: Every hour on the hour, for five minutes (if you cannot do this, at least do the alternate). • Repeat the idea. “Then realize your part is to be happy” (7:3); not to make noble sacrifices, just to be happy. • The rest is a meditation exercise in which you try to find the joy that God placed in you. Look deep within you. Sink down and inward to find the Christ in you, the source of joy. As you sink, you will pass by all of your “little thoughts and foolish goals” (8:5). Don’t let them hold you back. You might even ask yourself, “What little thought has power to hold me back?” Or you might simply remember that your one intent is to reach that inexhaustible well of joy at the center of your being; your one intent is to reach the Christ in you. Seek Him with confidence. “He will be there. And you can reach Him now” (9:1–2). Throughout the exercise, keep looking deep within for that bottomless well of joy. Frequent reminders: In between hourly practice periods. Repeat the idea, remembering that by doing so you are answering your Self’s call to you. As usual, I recommend repeating it in this fashion now, so you can see the benefits it brings.

Commentary God does not have “a plan for my life.” He has His plan, and I am a part of it. There are not billions of separate plans for billions of separate individuals. There is the one Will of God, and each of us has an essential part in it. Part of what is being undone by salvation is “the mad belief in separate thoughts and separate bodies, which lead separate lives and go their separate ways” (1:2). Every one of us has the same purpose, the same function, and in that we are united. Part of the healing of my own mind is the recognition that the other person does indeed share the same purpose with me, and in his reality, wants the same thing. If I look at his ego, I see separate interests—

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and that may be all that he or she is seeing. But when I give up my interpretation and allow the Holy Spirit to interpret for me, I see that the other person’s fear, which is manifesting as attack, is really a call for love and is really a witness to the belief in love within their mind. The result of this is that I see the other person does not need to change to be one with me; they already are one with me! I have a hidden ally in their mind. I have their own secret agreement with me on a common goal. The part God has “saved for me” (2:1) in His plan is designed to restore me to happiness, because happiness is His Will for me. There is something in us—the ego, of course!—that tells us it is wrong to want perfect happiness. But if perfect happiness is God’s Will, then to think I don’t deserve it is to oppose God’s Will! For God’s Will to be complete, my joy must be complete, for His Will is perfect joy for everyone! If everyone I meet encounters a face shining with joy, they will hear God calling to them in my happy laughter (2:6). I am essential to God’s plan; my joy is essential to His plan (3:1). So, today, let me choose the joy of God instead of pain. “Without your smile, the world cannot be saved…all laughter can but echo yours” (3:3–4). So my job today, and every day, is to be happy. I cannot be happy if I attack, or judge, or blame, or condemn. I cannot be happy unless I accept; unless I forgive as the Course teaches, looking past all the ego’s illusions to see the happy truth in everyone: they want love just as I do. We teach through our happiness. We call all minds to let their sorrows go by our “joy on earth” (4:2). This is plainly speaking about a manifest joy, one visible on our face through a smile and happy laughter. “God’s messengers are joyous, and their joy heals sorrow and despair” (4:3). A good affirmation for the day would be “My joy heals.” The part we all have in God’s plan is to demonstrate, by our perfect happiness, that God wills perfect happiness for all who will accept it as a gift from Him. Sadness is a choice, a decision to “play another part, instead of what has been assigned to you by God” (5:3). It is the ego’s mad desire to be independent of any power except its own. When I clamp down on my happiness I fail to show the world what God wills for us all, and thus I fail to recognize the happiness that is already, always mine.

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“Today we [I] will attempt to understand joy is our [my] function here” (6:1). Nothing has to change to make this possible. I can be perfectly happy right now, because happiness does not depend on anything outside of my mind. Getting upset with anything or anyone does not change it; only happiness heals. Only happiness brings lasting change. We mistakenly think at times that our happiness somehow enables the error and sin of others. If someone is being cruel and I continue to be happy, it seems to condone cruelty. However, to be upset at cruelty does not heal it; it makes it real. It is far more joyous, and far more healing, to see in the cruelty a groundless fear that masks an appeal for help, that shows by its very obscurity that within that person is a longing she or he shares with me; a longing for God, a longing for His gift of happiness. My happiness in the face of cruelty teaches that the grounds for the cruelty do not exist. It does not attack the symptom of cruelty; it undoes cruelty’s source. To be happy is not to lose out, to sacrifice, or to die (7:7). It is to live forever. It is our little thoughts and foolish goals that hold us back from happiness (9:3–5). Our mind has chosen to make something more important than happiness, and what that means in deep, metaphysical terms is that we have made something more important than Christ or God. If we look, He is in us. “He will be there”; that thought is repeated twice (9:1; 10:1). The Christ is in me, waiting to be acknowledged as myself. That is the only true source of happiness, and we all have Him already. My job today is to be His messenger, and to “find what He would have you give” (10:4). To find happiness in myself and give my happiness to others: that is the reason I am here, that is why this day exists for me. I am essential to God’s plan for the salvation of the world. Without my smile, the world cannot be saved (3:3).

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LESSON 101 • APRIL 11 “God’s Will for me is perfect happiness.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To learn that your sins are not real, and therefore that joy is what God wills for you, not punishment. To experience that joy and escape the heavy load you have laid on yourself by believing your sins are real. Longer: Every hour on the hour, for five minutes (if you cannot do this, at least do the alternate). • Say, “God’s Will for me is perfect happiness. There is no sin; it has no consequence.” • Then do the same kind of meditation that you did yesterday. Look deep within, seeking to find that place where God’s Will for you resides, that place where there is only joy, remembering that “joy is just” (6:2), because you never sinned. Remember to focus all of your intent on reaching that well of joy in you, to draw your mind back when it gets caught up in those “little thoughts and foolish goals” (W-pI.100.8:5), and to seek God’s Will in you with confidence, knowing that it will set you free from all the pain you’ve caused yourself. Frequent reminders: As often as you can. Repeat, “God’s Will for me is perfect happiness. This is the truth, because there is no sin.” Encouragement to practice: “You need the practice periods today” (5:1). For they can teach you that your sins were never real. They can bring you to accepting the Atonement. Your feet are already set on the path to freedom, and today’s practice can give you wings to speed you along that path, as well as hope that your speed will continue to increase. Therefore, practice happily. “Give these five minutes gladly” (7:1).

Commentary When A Course in Miracles speaks of “salvation” it means being happy. How starkly this contrasts with the common view of salvation, which seems to mean some painful purgation of our sins. If we are honest with ourselves we will find the idea of “paying for our sins” deeply imbedded in our consciousness, appearing in obvious and not

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so obvious ways. One of the most subtle, but easiest to detect if you are looking for it, is our guilt over being happy. Haven’t you ever noticed that? Somehow it just does not feel right or safe to be “too” happy, or to be happy “too much.” We have this weird feeling that if we are “overly” happy something really bad will happen to us. The common saying “This is too good to last” is just one obvious example of the syndrome. Sondra Ray’s Loving Relationships Training used to ask the question, “How good can you stand it?” Interesting question. Or, we may feel guilty about being happy when a friend is sad or upset for some reason; we feel obligated to join them in their misery. And the idea that we could be happy all the time just seems too ridiculous to consider. We think misery is a natural part of being alive. Maybe we even thought, with Carly Simon, that “suffering was the only thing made me feel I was alive.” (Listen to her song “Haven’t Got Time for the Pain” with Course ears. Wow!) We thought we needed it. We never realize that all of these ideas are directly traceable to our belief in sin and punishment. We don’t realize that we are actively choosing our unhappiness. There is no need for penance. There is no price to pay for sin, because there is no sin. Some of us, reading this, will at once think that these ideas are dangerous; if there is no price to pay for sin, then sinners will go wild. Punishment is necessary to control evil, we think. Within the world in which the illusion of bodies seems real, control is sometimes necessary, although perhaps far less often than we think. But debate over how to apply these ideas to social misbehavior (i.e., crime) could distract us for months; this is not the real issue here. We believe it is God Who demands payment for the wrongs we have done to Him. What if we have not done Him any wrong? What if our “sins” are no more to Him than a gnat biting an elephant, affecting Him not at all? How can I be happy if I believe God is angry at me? How can I be attracted to a salvation that comes through pain, killing me slowly, draining the life from me until I am skin and bones (metaphorically speaking)? Hell is not salvation! It is not a God of love Who would demand such things of us. God is not angry; His Will for me is perfect happiness. If sin is real, punishment is real, and if punishment is real I have every reason to flee from God. That is exactly why the ego promotes such a view of God. “There is no sin” (5:4), says the lesson, and it urges us to “practice with this thought as often as we can today” (5:5). What about justice? “Joy is just” (6:2). That is what justice is: joy!

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When I think on these ideas I often come down to a very simple application, one that comes up for me almost every day. Whenever I do something I don’t approve of, or fail to do something I think I should have done, or find myself thinking judgmental thoughts about someone, I often catch myself thinking that I have to go through a decent period of remorse before I can be happy again. Just because I’ve realized my mistake and decided to change my mind can’t possibly be enough to merit being happy again, can it? Don’t I have to “pay for my sin” somehow? Maybe, at the least, spend ten minutes in meditation? What utter nonsense! And yet, the idea keeps coming up. It shows me that I have not rid my mind of this sin-and-punishment idea, that I still think that somehow I have to even the account with God before I can be happy again. What God wants, what God wills for me in that instant and in every instant, is happiness. “Obey God” means “be happy.” It means let go of my self-important penitence and rejoice in the Love of God. It means accepting the Atonement for myself. What better way to “renounce sin” than to stop letting it drag me down into sniveling selfabasement, to refuse to acknowledge its power to keep me from happiness? May I, today, refuse to lay the load of guilt on myself. May I lift up my head, smile, and give God glory by the simple act of being happy. The greatest gift I can give to those around me is my happiness. God’s Will for me is perfect happiness. This is the truth, because there is no sin. (7:6–7)

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LESSON 102 • APRIL 12 “I share God’s Will for happiness for me.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To further loosen the hold of your belief that pain buys you something. To realize pain has no benefit, no purpose, and no reality. To realize that what you want is the same perfect happiness God wills for you. Longer: Every hour on the hour, for five minutes (if you cannot do this, at least do the alternate). • Say, “I share God’s Will for happiness for me, and I accept it as my function now.” Try to mean it, try to make it an actual act of accepting God’s Will. • Then, again spend the rest of the time in meditation trying to “reach the happiness God’s Will has placed in you” (3:1). This is the practice you did in the previous two days and will continue doing for several more. Remember to seek this place with real desire, for only here do you feel at home, at rest, safe, and at peace. Remember also to seek with confidence, for if you really will with God to reach this place, then quite simply, “you cannot fail to find it” (4:4). Frequent reminders: Frequent. Repeat, “I share God’s Will for happiness for me, and I accept it as my function now.”

Commentary “I share God’s Will for happiness for me.” How nice that the Workbook is going to spend several days devoted to “exercises planned to help you reach the happiness God’s Will has placed in you” (3:1). I notice that I’m not trying to “make myself happy” but rather trying to reach a preexistent happiness. An American guru (who went at one time by the name Da Free John, now often called Adi Da) once said, “You are always already happy.” That phrase stuck in my mind, and it is consonant with what the Course is saying about happiness. The Self within me is always happy. It was created happy by God; God’s Will “placed” happiness within me. I am not trying to create happiness; I am merely attempting to locate it within myself, to discover it there.

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Happiness is contrasted with our belief in the merit of suffering. The lesson isn’t expecting us to be at the point of total freedom from this belief. “Yet this belief is surely shaken by now, at least enough to let you question it, and to suspect it really makes no sense” (1:3). This belief is what has been superimposed on our native happiness, obscuring it and causing us to experience pain and suffering. Our happiness is hidden under layers of pain only because we believe there is value in the pain. And I know that I do at least question this belief. I don’t want to suffer; of course I don’t. Yet if I do suffer, I have chosen it, not because I want the pain but because I want what I think the pain will get me. The message of the lesson in this regard is: “Pain is purposeless, without a cause and with no power to accomplish anything” (2:1). Not only so, but everything that I think the pain will bring me is equally lacking in existence. The whole thing is a deceptive mirage conjured up by the ego to keep us from our eternal satisfaction in God. So today we declare that we share God’s Will for happiness for ourselves. We declare that we will to be happy. Simple being what God created is our function. “Be happy, for your only function here is happiness” (5:1). The next line (5:2) speaks of our being less loving to our brothers than God is, and says there is no need for it. Unhappiness is our “excuse” for being less loving than God. How can I open my heart to you in love when I am unhappy? By choosing to be happy I am enabling myself to be wholly loving. The Course always seems to be making these interesting connections between things that would never occur to me, but which seem obvious when it points them out.

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LESSON 103 • APRIL 13 “God, being Love, is also happiness.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To try again to correct our false belief that God is not fearful. To realize instead that, since God is Love, He must be a giver of pure joy. Longer: Every hour on the hour, for five minutes (if you cannot do this, at least do the alternate). • Say, “God, being Love, is also happiness. To fear Him is to be afraid of joy.” • Then, just as in previous days, enter into a meditation aimed at finding the happiness God placed in you. Seek this holy place in you filled with anticipation, expecting God’s joy to take the place of your pain. Realize you cannot fail, because you seek what is already yours. Also seek this place filled with a sense of welcoming the happiness that will surely come to you. And remember to draw your mind back when it drifts off to thinking about all the false promises held out to you by the world’s definition of happiness. Frequent reminders: Frequent. Reinforce your expectation that you will find God’s joy by saying, “God, being Love, is also happiness. And it is happiness I seek today. I cannot fail, because I seek the truth.” By bolstering your expectancy, this will enhance the depth of your hourly practice periods. Response to temptation: Whenever you feel any form of fear. Quiet all your fears with these words: “God, being Love, is also happiness. And it is happiness I seek today. I cannot fail, because I seek the truth.”

Commentary “God, being Love, is also happiness.” There’s one I never heard in church! “God is happiness.” (Well, the Westminster Catechism of the Presbyterian Church did say that man’s chief end is to love God and to enjoy Him forever. But you didn’t hear “enjoying God” talked about very often.) Yet the way the lesson logically presents it, the idea is obvious and inescapable. Without love, no one could be happy. If love were absent, happiness would be absent also. That seems so

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simple to understand. Happiness must be an attribute of love; they go or come together. God is Love. “Love has no limits, being everywhere” (1:4). Because that is true, happiness or joy must also be everywhere, just as God is. So God is happiness, as well as love. The denial of happiness, then, is the denial of God. As a matter of fact, the Text says something very much like that in Chapter 10, when it says that depression is blasphemy (T-10.V.12:3–4). Careful, though; the point of saying this is not to make us guilty about being sad or depressed. The Course’s point is to undo guilt, not to create it. It is pointing out the cause of our sadness and depression to us. It is saying, “You’re hurting because you are turning your back on God, on Love, on Happiness Itself. It isn’t something outside of you, out of your control, that is doing this to you. You have the power to change this, to choose again and lift that depression.” We are sad and depressed because we think that what we have made is real (2:1). We think there are “gaps in love” (1:6), that it is not everywhere and always. We are sad because we believe we are, to some degree at least, outside of God’s Love, beyond its “limits.” And we are not; we cannot be outside of His Love. If we knew that in the core of our being, we could never be unhappy. Because I believe love has limits, I have come to be afraid of it: afraid it will be withdrawn, afraid of its conditions, afraid that what seems to be love is only a tease, a tantalizing promise that threatens to disappear if I misbehave. That fear, that constant anxiety over love’s potential for disappearance is the source of my lack of joy. How can I be joyful, even when things are “good,” if love may be withdrawn at any moment? This is the error of our minds we are practicing to uncover, bring to the light, and let go of. Right now, this moment, I am encircled by His embrace. Right now, without a single thing changing, the Love of God radiates to me without limit and without reservation or question. To know this is happiness, and it is this I seek today.

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LESSON 104 • APRIL 14 “I seek but what belongs to me in truth.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To clear a place in your mind where God’s gifts of joy and peace are welcome and experienced. Longer: Every hour on the hour, for five minutes (if you cannot do this, at least do the alternate). • Begin with, “I seek but what belongs to me in truth. And joy and peace are my inheritance.” • Then again embark on a meditation aimed at experiencing the joy God has placed at the center of your being. This lesson speaks of going to the holy altar within you, the deep place in your mind that contains your fundamental devotions (you may want to visualize this altar). You have covered this altar with the meaningless gifts of the world, thereby obscuring God’s gifts. In your meditation, try to clear these gifts away. “We clear a holy place within our minds before His altar” (4:2). Then seek the gifts of joy and peace that God has laid on this altar for you. They are already there, even though you do not see them yet. Ask to recognize them. While seeking them, hold above all else an attitude of confidence, trusting that God’s gifts are your inheritance, that they belong to you, that they have always been yours, and that you can claim them now. Frequent reminders: As often as you can. Repeat, “I seek but what belongs to me in truth. God’s gifts of peace and joy are all I want.” Doing so frequently will keep you from losing sight of God’s gifts in between your hourly practice periods.

Commentary Today I set aside the complex and focus on two very simple things: joy, and peace of mind. For today I will not concern myself with profound metaphysical truths, nor the invisible reality of my Self. Today I simply seek to know the peace and joy that are mine by right of what I am. I forget about the urgency of my self-made goals, the self-imposed importance of everything I think that I must do. I ignore the man-made standards by which I so often judge myself or let others

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judge me. Today I center on the only things that are truly important: joy, and peace of mind. What could be of more value than these? If I lived in a palace, had unlimited wealth, and the partnership of the most perfect mate in the world, and had not peace of mind and joy, I would still be poor. If I lived in a hovel with peace of mind and joy, I would be rich. And I can have these things; they are my right because of what I am. Joy is my divine right. Peace is my divine right. They are within reach of everyone, regardless of background, regardless of education, regardless of income. Today, in the times I pause to remember, this is what I want to remember. I open myself with gratitude to God Who gave me these gifts; I honor Him by enjoying them. I honor Him by being joyful and peaceful in these five minute periods, and I will not forget in between. I recall a seminar I did years ago in which we engaged in deep selfsearching, attempting to ferret out some of the lies we had been telling ourselves, the negative, self-deprecating thoughts that dragged down our lives. We then distilled these down into what seemed, for each individual, the fundamental lie we were telling ourselves about ourselves. Next, we were asked to take that lie and reverse it, turn it into an affirmation. And finally, we walked about the room, introducing ourselves to one another, and stating our “eternal truth.” I will never forget one woman, although I forget her name so I will simply call her Carol. She walked up to me, looked me directly in the eyes, and smiled a radiant smile. “Hi!” she said. “I’m Carol, and my joy heals.” And you know what? It did. Right in that instant. Something clicked within my mind, and I have never forgotten her, never forgotten her joy. She had discovered a truth about herself. Joy heals! When I am joyful, those around me are healed. Haven’t you ever noticed that about other people who are joyful, truly joyful? Their joy heals you. What could be of more value than joy such as that? Peace heals, too. One peaceful person in a room full of agitated individuals can bring calm to everyone. I choose to be that person today, because it is my right. I settle down in each practice time and “clear a place within [my] mind before His altar” (4:2). I clear that place to receive the eternal gifts, the joy and peace God wants to give me. “Nothing else belongs to us in truth” (4:4). None of the other things I think I want belong to me in the way that joy and peace belong to me. These are “possessions” that bless the world, instead of taking from it. No one loses because I have joy and peace; everyone gains.

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I already have these gifts! “I seek but what belongs to me in truth.” Joy belongs to me; peace belongs to me. Thank You, God. Thank You.

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LESSON 105 • APRIL 15 “God’s peace and joy are mine.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To accept God’s gifts of peace and joy, and understand that in doing so you actually increase His peace and joy, rather than taking them from Him. Thus, you “learn a different way of looking at a gift” (3:3). Longer: Every hour on the hour, for five minutes (if you cannot do this, at least do the alternate). • Think of those to whom you denied God’s peace and joy, for thus you denied them to yourself. Say to each one, “My brother, peace and joy I offer you, that I may have God’s peace and joy as mine.” By giving God’s gifts where you withheld them, you will now feel entitled to claim them as your own. Doing this preparatory step well will guarantee your success in the following step. • Then close your eyes and say, “God’s peace and joy are mine,” and try to find those gifts deep in your mind. Let yourself experience the joy and peace that belong to you. Let God’s Voice assure you that God’s peace and joy really are yours. This appears to be another meditation aimed at making contact with the happiness God placed in you. Alternate: On the hour. If you cannot do the five minutes on the hour, don’t think that doing a shortened version is worthless. At least repeat, “God’s peace and joy are mine,” realizing that by doing so you invite Him to give you the happiness He wills for you. Response to temptation: Whenever you are tempted to deny God’s gift to someone. Be grateful to this person for providing you with another chance to receive God’s peace and joy by giving them away. Channel your gratitude into this blessing: “My brother, peace and joy I offer you, that I may have God’s peace and joy as mine.”

Commentary Today’s lesson adds to yesterday’s emphasis on peace and joy. It reiterates much of what was in that lesson, but adds the thought that we receive these gifts by giving them.

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“A major learning goal this course has set is to reverse your view of giving, so you can receive” (3:1). This idea, that we receive by giving, runs all through the Course, and is given considerable importance, but this is the only place I know of that learning this lesson is specifically identified as “a major learning goal” of the Course. We noted yesterday that peace and joy are gifts that increase by being shared. To share my peace with you increases it rather than diminishes it. This lesson makes the rather startling assertion that when I receive peace and joy from God, God’s joy grows (4:1). By accepting peace and joy as mine, I am allowing God to “complete Himself as He defines completion” (5:2). Through my experience of this, I learn what my own completion must be (5:3). Even the psalmist of the Old Testament knew something of this when he wrote: What shall I render to the LORD for all His benefits toward me? I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord. (Ps 116:12–13, KJV) What gift can I give to God to thank Him for His blessing? I can give Him the gift of receiving His salvation and calling on His love. I take the gifts of joy and peace, and “He will thank [me] for [my] gift to Him” (5:6). We have all experienced this in some small way, at least. We know the joy of giving. We know that when we give love, and it is received, our love is strengthened, not weakened. Shared love is a great joy. Love received is far richer than love unacknowledged. Even receiving the joy of a child over a new toy or a new pet visibly adds to the child’s joy. These are small reflections of how God’s giving works, and we are meant to be part of it. This kind of giving, the giving of things that increase by being given away, is how we create (“True giving is creation”—4:2) and how we complete ourselves. The exercises today prepare us to receive peace and joy. The preparation consists of consciously giving away peace and joy to those to whom we have denied them in the past: our “enemies.” The people who, in our eyes, have not deserved to have peace and joy. We did not realize that in denying the gift to them, we were denying it to ourselves in equal measure. If what we give increases in us, then if we withhold it we are withholding from ourselves as well. To truly say, and to experience, that “God’s peace and joy are mine,” we must open our hearts to share peace and joy with the world. It begins with that person to whom my heart has been closed. “My

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brother, peace and joy I offer you” (7:2; 9:6). If I will open my heart to allow love to flow out, it will also flow in. As I open my heart, allowing peace, joy, and love to flow out to those around me, what I am doing is “letting what cannot contain itself fulfill its aim of giving everything it has away, securing it forever for itself” (4:5). What is it that “cannot contain itself”? My Self, my own Being. This irrepressible Giver is me.

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LESSON 106 • APRIL 16 “Let me be still and listen to the truth.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To lay aside the ego’s voice, still your mind, and listen to your Father’s Voice, and then to offer Him your voice to speak to all who need to hear His Word. Longer: Every hour on the hour, for five minutes (if you cannot do this, at least do the alternate). • Say, “I will be still and listen to the truth. What does it mean to give and to receive?” • Spend the rest of the time waiting for your answer from the Holy Spirit. It is important, however, to understand what you are really asking. You are asking to receive from God—to hear His Voice and receive His Word, to be filled up from within—so that you can give to your brothers, which in turn will make your receiving even more full and complete. It is important, then, to offer Him your willingness to give what you receive. This giving will apparently happen both within the practice period, as your mind goes out to other minds, and after the practice period, as what you experience today inspires you to actually “begin the ministry for which you came” (8:3). While you wait for your answer, remember the training you received in earlier lessons: Hold your mind in silent readiness, drawing it back when it lapses into listening to the ego’s voice. Listen with confidence: “expect an answer” (8:1). And periodically repeat your question, to renew your posture of expectant waiting. Frequent reminders: As often as possible. Say, “Let me be still and listen to the truth. I am the messenger of God today, My voice is His, to give what I receive.” This will reinforce your choice to receive His Word, which prepares you to give. Encouragement to practice: Be aware that your practice is not an act of solitary self-indulgence. Rather, by sitting down and doing your practice, you will literally be releasing minds all over the world. “For each five minutes spent in listening, a thousand minds are opened to the truth and they will hear the holy Word you hear” (9:2).

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Commentary At first today’s lesson does not seem to follow yesterday’s theme on giving and receiving, but midway through it switches back to that theme. It seems like an abrupt switch, perhaps. The first part of the lesson, speaking of stilling our minds to listen to God’s Voice, doesn’t seem to lead naturally into thoughts of giving and receiving. Yet this is what we are listening for; this is what we hear. We are learning of our true nature. This is the message of salvation: “When everything is yours and everything is given away, it will remain with you forever” (7:1). What am I in this world for? According to this lesson, it is to hear the Voice for God telling me of God’s eternal gift to me, the gift of Christ, the gift of my Self—God’s “dear Son, whose other name is you” (4:7). And it is to extend that same message to the world. This is “the ministry for which you came, and which will free the world from thinking giving is a way to lose” (8:3). Hearing God’s Voice and speaking for it are as inextricably linked in this lesson as are giving and receiving. If I truly hear the Voice, I will give Him my voice to speak through me. If I receive the Word, I will share it, because the message is sharing. God’s Word to me is that I am a savior, a healer, and a bringer of truth. I am His Son, His offspring, like Him, extending healing, offering peace and joy to everyone, letting them know they are His offspring as well. Sometimes I think we take the Course too seriously and need to lighten up. At other times I think we take it too lightly, and need to take it more seriously. For instance, this lesson tells me that every time I pause for five minutes to be still and listen to the truth, one thousand minds are opened to the truth (9:2). Suppose I took that seriously? Suppose I paused every hour, as instructed. In the course of the day, fifteen thousand minds would open to the truth. Suppose everyone reading these comments did that (about six hundred people)? Then nine million minds would open to the truth! I don’t take this kind of thing seriously enough. I shrug if off, thinking that if I only practice once or twice during the day, it’s enough. Recently, the old Charlton Heston movie The Ten Commandments played on TV. I watched a few minutes of it, enough to remember a line from it that always impressed me. Moses, suffering setbacks in the early days of trying to get Pharaoh to release the Hebrews, prays to God, saying, “Lord, forgive me for my weak use of Thy great power.” When I read today’s lesson I thought about that line. I thought about how I treat these practice times, many days,

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as if they don’t really matter. I imagine myself as of little consequence in His plan, at least most of the time. But if I take this lesson seriously, I could be instrumental today in bringing light into fifteen thousand minds! I’m not trying to lay guilt on anyone, least of all myself. I am trying to raise my own consciousness concerning the power God has placed into my hands—or, more properly, into my mind. Each of us who connects with the truth in our minds today, listening to the truth, is contributing to the elevation of consciousness on…I was going to say, “on this planet,” but it is far more than that, it is the arousal of Christ-consciousness in the whole universe. That little five minutes, in which, perhaps, nothing seems to happen; in which you may be fighting a wandering mind; or which seems at times to be interminable as your ego prods you to “get back to work” or whatever you are doing—that little five minutes is a very significant contribution to the salvation of the world. Let me be still and listen to the truth. I am the messenger of God today, My voice is His, to give what I receive. (10:3–4)

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LESSON 107 • APRIL 17 “Truth will correct all errors in my mind.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To let Christ lead you to an experience of the truth, so that you can join Him in His function of bringing truth to the world. Longer: Every hour on the hour, for five minutes (if you cannot do this, at least do the alternate). • Start by asking your Self, the Christ, to go with you—which makes sense for you can never be apart from Him. While asking, also pledge to Him “to let His function [of saving the world] be fulfilled through you” (9:2). That is the point of today’s exercise: to let Him fill you with the truth, so you can bring it to the world (this is very similar to yesterday’s exercise). • Then ask that the truth come into your mind. Ask with confidence, with certainty of success. Count on truth to be there, for it belongs to you. State your request this way: “Truth will correct all errors in my mind, and I will rest in Him Who is my Self” (9:5). • “Then let Him lead you gently to the truth, which will envelop you and give you peace so deep and tranquil that you will return to the familiar world reluctantly” (9:6). This appears to be a meditation much like those in 69, 73, and 91, in which you rely upon a strength beyond your own to carry you to your inner goal. Frequent reminders: Do not forget today. Repeat the idea with confidence, realizing that you are speaking for yourself (for your own desire for release), for the world (for its desire for release), and for Christ, “Who would release the world” (11:2). Encouragement to practice: Be aware that by letting truth into your mind you will indeed benefit the world. During the practice period, the truth will go out from your mind to other minds to correct their errors. And then, after the practice period, the truth will go with you as you are sent to those in need to give them the gift of truth.

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Commentary This is the promise that gives courage! Errors are only errors, not flaws. “What are errors but illusions that remain unrecognized for what they are?” (1:2). An illusion that is not recognized as illusion causes us to react as if it were real. If I see an illusory enemy and respond with attack, that does not make me bad or stupid. The reaction is appropriate, given what I believe to be the truth. I can recall many evenings in the past where I was sitting at home feeling lonely and world-weary. Something in me saw an illusion and believed it to be true. I saw some loneliness or weariness, a need to be comforted, and so I sought comfort in television and in staying up late. What I did was not the mistake; the mistake was believing the illusion was real. When I look at the illusion, it vanishes. The holy instant is a state of mind without illusions, a moment of unquestioned peace, “when you were certain you were loved and safe” (2:3). It is a foretaste of “the state your mind will rest in when truth has come” (3:1). It is my true state. I can find that true state any time I am willing to look at my illusions and to let them go. So often, late at night, I used to feel disconnected, unfulfilled, empty somehow, and I tried to fill that emptiness with fantasy, television, reading, or food. The emptiness is illusion. When I feel that emptiness let me remember it is not real; let me affirm my fullness. The state of mind that stays exactly as it always was, without shifting and changing, still seems so far away from me. Jesus says, in effect, “It will be yours; it already is yours. It is guaranteed.” “It is impossible that anyone could seek it truly, and would not succeed” (6:4). The seeming shifts and changes I go through now are all part of the illusion; they are not real, they are not truly happening. I am safe. I am steady. I am whole. When the shifting and faltering seem to occur, let me remind myself they are only a dream. They mean nothing, they change nothing. Let me not accord them strength to disturb my peace. Let me not make the mistake of identifying with that shift and change and thinking it is me that is shifting and changing. I am fixed and unalterable. The errors in my mind are those that tell me I could be apart from Jesus, the Christ. He is my brother. We are the same. He is my Self. How can I be apart from my Self? Let me take regular times today to return to this center, to recognize that Jesus and I are one Self. Today I will bring any thought

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that tells me anything different to him for correction. Any thought that tells me I am something other than this calm, serene, fearless, wholly fulfilled Being. Let me watch my mind for thoughts that say otherwise and bring them fearlessly to the light of truth. Jesus, help me to break the connection, the identification with any thought of weakness or emptiness or disconnectedness. Let me lean on your strong arm and trust in you. Let the demons scream and rant and rave around me: Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. (Ps 23:4) You are the Strong One in me, and You are my Self.

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LESSON 108 • APRIL 18 “To give and to receive are one in truth.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To offer peace to everyone and feel peace return to you. To thereby learn the unity of cause and effect—that giving (cause) and receiving (effect) are the same. Longer: Every hour on the hour, for five minutes (if you cannot do this, at least do the alternate). • Say, “To give and to receive are one in truth. I will receive what I am giving now.” • Close your eyes and offer everyone those inner states and qualities that you would like to receive. Say, for example: “To everyone I offer peace of mind. To everyone I offer gentleness.” “Say each one slowly, and then pause a while, expecting to receive the gift you gave” (9:1). Trust it to come back in the amount that you gave. You may want to single out one person as the one you give your gifts to, understanding that through giving to him you give to everyone. Frequent reminders: Often. Repeat the idea, realizing that each repetition makes your learning “faster and more sure” (10:3). Encouragement to practice: Try to think of today’s exercises as “quick advances in your learning” (10:3), revealing to you the nature of cause and effect, and heightening the speed of your progress.

Commentary The early part of the lesson describes the state of One-mindedness, where all opposites have been resolved into “one concept which is wholly true” (1:3). When that occurs, the concept will disappear because the Thought behind it will appear instead to take its place. And now you are at peace forever, for the dream is over then. (1:4–5) This is Heaven; attaining this state is beyond the scope of the Course. But it is our eventual goal, a place where perception and concepts have vanished, and only knowledge remains.

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That “state of mind that has become so unified that darkness cannot be perceived at all” (2:2) is within me. It is the Christ mind, and from it comes my peace of mind; from it comes single perception. It is this I call upon or tap into, drawing it into myself until it takes me over. It is where I am always and what I am forever, but which I have forgotten. One of the best and most useful lessons we can learn while drawing on this state of mind is that giving and receiving are one and the same. Like all opposites, they are not truly opposite at all; they are part of a unified spectrum of reality. Neither precedes the other; both occur together. Through actual experience with this particular example of the resolution of opposites we can begin to learn how all opposites are reconciled. We can produce an experience of this resolution at will. It is an experiment that always works. Sit quietly, and mentally begin to send peace to everyone. Think of specific persons, and say to them in your mind, “I offer you quietness. I offer you peace of mind. I offer you gentleness” (based on 8:6–8). Go through your list of friends and relations mentally, sending peace to each and every one of them. Offer it to the world at large. What we find as we do this is that, as we offer peace to others, we experience it ourselves. Quite literally, what we give, we receive. Immediately. There is no pause, no delay for feedback. Our act of giving is quite literally also an act of receiving. There is one act and it contains both things, because there are not two things, only one. The generalization of this lesson is that cause and effect are one in truth (my interpretation of 10:2–3). It leads us to realize that my thought of attack on another is literally an attack on myself, at that very moment. We think of cause and effect in a linear fashion, as if what I do today will impact on me tomorrow and in the future. That is an incomplete picture. In fact, there is no time delay at all. My thought of attack impacts on me now, just as my thoughts offering peace immediately make me peaceful. Thought and action are likewise the same. I am constantly engendering the universe of my experience. In reality, there is nothing outside my mind. Nothing but these thoughts exists. The world we see is just our thoughts given form. They have never left our mind in truth.

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LESSON 109 • APRIL 19 “I rest in God.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To rest in God, untouched by the storms of the world. Longer: Every hour on the hour, for five minutes (if you cannot do this, at least do the alternate). This exercise is a meditation in which you sink into stillness by using the line “I rest in God.” Let that line draw you into a rest in which you have “no cares and no concerns” (5:1), and in which the turmoil of the outer world cannot touch you. While in this state, call to all your brothers, “your distant brothers and your closest friends” (8:3), and welcome them into the holy temple within where you rest with God. Realize that their rest will deepen and complete yours. Frequent reminders: Often. Repeat the idea, realizing that you are not only reminding yourself of your resting place, but reminding all Sons of God of their resting place, including those no longer in the body and those not yet born. Try repeating the idea now while holding in mind the sense that “I am reminding every mind of its true resting place.” Response to temptation: Whenever you face a problem or experience suffering. Repeat the idea, knowing it has power to heal all suffering, solve all problems, and carry you past storms and strife into the peace of God. Encouragement to practice: Incredible power is ascribed to your practice of today’s idea (see especially the first three paragraphs), not only for you, but for everyone. Repeating today’s idea has power to call every mind to rest along with you, including those who came in the past or haven’t come yet (see 2:5 and 9:5). Paragraphs 6 and 7 relate an inspiring scenario. Your five minutes bring healing to an injured bird and a dry stream. Then, a tired mind, so weary that he’s not sure he can carry on in life, hears the bird start singing and sees the stream start flowing. And witnessing this rebirth gives that mind the strength and hope to carry on. Whether or not we think this specific scenario will happen, we need to realize that our practice has the power to spark effects like these.

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Commentary This lesson epitomizes what so many of the lessons are trying to get me to do: simply to take a little time out of my day to rest in God. To be quiet. To be at peace. To sense the stillness that lies at the depths of my being, placed there in creation by God. To do this not just once in the morning, but often during the day, repeatedly reminding myself that this peace, this serenity of being, is my natural state, while the frenzy of distractedness, the ping-pong of opposing thoughts that so habitually occupies my mind, is what is unnatural. What has seemed to me to be “normal” has been nothing but “frantic fantasies [that] were but the dreams of fever that has passed away” (5:5). There is a place in you where this whole world has been forgotten; where no memory of sin and of illusion lingers still. There is a place in you which time has left, and echoes of eternity are heard. There is a resting place so still no sound except a hymn to Heaven rises up to gladden God the Father and the Son. Where Both abide are They remembered, Both…. ….The changelessness of Heaven is in you, so deep within that nothing in this world but passes by, unnoticed and unseen. The still infinity of endless peace surrounds you gently in its soft embrace, so strong and quiet, tranquil in the might of its Creator, nothing can intrude upon the sacred Son of God within. (T-29.V.1:1–4; 2:3–4) And here I rest in God. Here I breathe the air of Heaven. Here I can remember what I am. The lesson tells me of wondrous things that come from my willingness to take these times of rest. These moments of quiet are not for me alone. They are my mission for the world; through them I am bringing peace to every mind. Our practice times are no small thing, to be lightly skipped over; the author places extraordinary importance on them: • He says they bring the end of suffering for the entire world (2:5). • He tells us there is no suffering, nor any problem, they cannot solve (3:3–4).

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• Through these times we are calling all the world to join us in rest (4:5–6). • Every time we rest, we heal the world: We gladden a tired mind, give song to a wounded bird, and give flowing water to dry stream beds (6:1–2). I came to bring the peace of God into the world. This is my “trust” (8:2), my sacred mission, my reason for being. Jesus asks me to “open the temple doors and let them come from far across the world, and near as well; your distant brothers and your closest friends; bid them all enter here and rest with you” (8:3). This is what I am doing each time I stop the mental chatter and sit, quietly, and rest in God. I am like Buddha, casting his compassion on the world. I am Buddha; I am Christ. I envision myself as a cell in a cosmic body, a body that has been invaded by a deadly virus, the virus of antagonism, of disharmony, of hatred, envy, and strife; the virus of bitterness, sorrow, and pain; the virus of despair, depression, and death. As I take my time of rest, it is as if this little cell has discovered how to produce the antitoxin, the remedy for the virus: the peace of God. And the connecting current of our shared thoughts is the bloodstream that carries this antitoxin to other cells, who absorb it and begin, in turn, to produce this healing substance. Peace of mind, the antitoxin for the world. It is for this I have taken birth. It is for this I am here, and nothing else. Through these simple practices, we bring healing to all of time, past and future: Time is not the guardian of what we give today. We give to those unborn and those passed by, to every Thought of God, and to the Mind in which these Thoughts were born and where they rest. And we remind them of their resting place each time we tell ourselves, “I rest in God.”(9:4–6)

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LESSON 110 • APRIL 20 “I am as God created me.”

Practice instructions Purpose: To cease worshipping false images of who you are and to instead seek and find your true Self. Longer: Every hour on the hour, for five minutes (if you cannot do this, at least do the alternate). • Say, “I am as God created me. His Son can suffer nothing. And I am His Son.” • The rest of the practice period is a meditation which is extremely similar to what you did with the first occurrence of this idea, in Lesson 94 (you may want to go back and read my practice instructions for that lesson). Your whole focus should be on seeking that deep place in your mind where your true Self, the Christ, abides. To get there, you need to set aside all your images of who you are—they are the idols and graven images referred to in the lesson. As usual, remember your training in meditation: focus all your intent on sinking down and inward to the center of your mind, draw your mind back from wandering as often as necessary, and approach your Self with desire, for it is your Self Who has the power to save you. Frequent reminders: As often as you can. Repeat the idea to remind yourself of your true Identity as the holy Son of God. Encouragement to practice: You are told to “practice today’s idea with gratitude” (5:3) because, quite simply, it carries so much power (as you can see from reading the first five paragraphs). This is the Workbook’s premier lesson. You are reminded repeatedly today that today’s idea is “enough” (1:2; 2:2–4) to save you, that it is “all you need” (2:1; see also 3:3).

Commentary This one thought, we are told, is enough to save not only ourselves, but the world, if we believe it to be true. Its truth would mean that you have made no changes in yourself that have reality, nor changed the universe so

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that what God created was replaced by fear and evil, misery and death. (1:3) This is the primary meaning of this idea for me: nothing I have done has changed anything. Ego thoughts have done nothing, changed nothing. Fear and evil, misery and death have not occurred. I remain as God created me. I have not damaged anything. The tiny, mad idea to replace God on His throne accomplished absolutely nothing. I am still perfect, innocent, golden love. It is enough to let time be the means for all the world to learn escape from time, and every change that time appears to bring in passing by. (2:4) We tend to see the ravages of time. We see the aging body. We see loved ones come and go. We see decay and death and loss. But time can be the means by which we learn escape from time and all its changes. We learn through time to look beyond the appearances of change to what is unchanging, and we come to learn that only that is real. “Lead me in the way everlasting” (Ps 139:24). If you are as God created you, then there has been no separation of your mind from His, no split between your mind and other minds, and only unity within your own. (4:2) No separation, no split, no schizophrenia. I am one Self, united with my Creator, and limitless in power and in love. I can trust my brothers, who are one with me, because I am as God created me and have never split from them. What I find within myself when I listen to the Spirit’s quiet voice is what all others are as well. I find within myself the Holy One. I am This; you are This. Let me simply become aware of any thought that says anything different, any picture of myself that creates a false and limited idol, and just drop that thought. Deep in your mind the holy Christ in you is waiting your acknowledgment as you. And you are lost and do not know yourself while He is unacknowledged and unknown. (9:4–5)

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REVIEW III INTRODUCTION Again a review. Nearly everyone I know, especially when they first do the Workbook, finds the reviews either boring or frustrating. It’s an interesting testimony to the orientation of our minds. Apparently we crave constant newness, and the idea of repeating practice with the same ideas, even for just the second time, seems lackluster and mundane. We want to get on to something new and exciting. What we don’t seem to grasp is that any one of these ideas could be the breakthrough for us. Toward the end of this review introduction, the reviews are called a “second chance with each of these ideas” (12:3). Now, if you are anything like me, you probably didn’t rack up a perfect score in practicing the first time. You forgot the hourly practices, you did only a few each day, and perhaps missed days entirely. So, think of this as a second chance to get the benefits of each lesson. I know I’m thinking of it that way, and I need it. The Review III introduction is one of the most important discussions of Workbook practice in the book. The attitude toward practice portrayed here is extremely informative. First of all, following the instructions literally as given, and doing the two fiveminute practices, with short practices on the hour and on the half hour, is considered very, very important. We are “urged” to pay attention to the instructions and “to follow [them] just as closely as you can” (1:3). An attitude that says it doesn’t matter how you do the lessons clearly doesn’t fit with this admonition. Second, the author is being very reasonable. He recognizes that it may be impossible for us to literally carry out the instructions in an “optimal” way (2:1). For example, a mother caring for very young children may not be able to stop every half hour and close her eyes; a clerk in a retail store may not be able to get away from customers for a minute every half hour. “Learning will not be hampered when you miss a practice period because it is impossible at the appointed time” (2:2). So if you miss because it is impossible to practice, that’s okay. Notice, however, the word “impossible.” It doesn’t say “inconvenient” or “awkward,” it says “impossible.” The key to whether or not our learning will be hampered is not whether or not we actually do the practice, but why we don’t do it. Is it because we can’t, or because we don’t want to? Notice, also, that we aren’t expected to make “excessive efforts to be sure that you catch up in terms of numbers” (2:3). To me that implies that making reasonable efforts to catch up is something that

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would be proper. So if I miss at noon because I’m talking with my boss, but I’m free at 12:15, it would make sense to stop for a minute and make up that missed practice period. But the goal is not ritual; it isn’t about “doing it perfectly.” The crux of the matter is our desire and our willingness, not the number of practice periods. We aren’t to become obsessive about this stuff. Third, the author obviously understands our ineptitude and resistance in regard to practice. Skipping a practice period because we don’t want to do it (or don’t “feel like it”) will hamper our learning! (3:1). Again I say, this statement is hardly consistent with any thought that following instructions doesn’t matter, and that it’s enough to just read over the lesson in the morning. He takes particular pains to point out the ways we deceive ourselves, hiding our unwillingness “behind a cloak of situations you cannot control” (3:3). He points out that many of these have been subtly engineered by ourselves to “camouflage… your unwillingness,” and urges us to learn to distinguish these from situations that are truly “poorly suited to your practicing” (3:4). I have often found that the times when I “just do it” even when I don’t feel like it are often the ones in which I have the deepest awareness of a shift in consciousness occurring. Lest some of you feel offended by all this, let me say that it’s perfectly okay to just read over the lesson in the morning and forget about the practice directions. Just be aware that this is what you are doing, and that it is your choice. Don’t fight yourself. If you really don’t want to do the practice now, don’t do it. This type of disciplined practice may not be what you need right now. You may not be ready now, but you will be later. Or perhaps you’ll find another spiritual path. But don’t think you can pass judgment on the Course and say it didn’t work for you, unless you do the lessons as instructed. If you do them, they will work. Notice, too, that practices you deliberately skip because you “did not want to do them, for whatever reason, should be done as soon as you have changed your mind about your goal” (4:1). This kind of missed practice you should try to make up! Why? “Your practicing can offer everything to you” (4:5). The middle part of the introduction gives us fascinating instruction in having faith in our own minds. We are supposed to allow our minds to relate the ideas we are reviewing to our needs, concerns, and problems. The picture you get is almost one of free association, placing the idea in our mind and then seeing where it leads us. Jesus asks us to give faith to our mind that it will use the ideas wisely. This seems to be designed to counteract our self-doubt. Perhaps we think

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that, left to range freely, our minds will wander off into the forest of ideas and get lost. But we are “helped in [our] decisions by the One Who gave the thoughts to [us]” (6:2), that is, the Holy Spirit. If we wander, He will guide us back. In this kind of exercise we are learning to trust our own inner wisdom. “The wisdom of your mind will come to your assistance” (6:5). If what comes to mind is a paraphrase of the day’s idea, let it come. Often, your own paraphrase of the idea will be more effective for you than the original form, and will stick in your memory much better. The final portion of the introduction returns again to general practice instructions and what might be deemed a “pep talk.” The emphasis in this part is on bringing the ideas into application in our lives, all day long (9:2–3). “These practice periods are planned to help you form the habit of applying what you learn each day to everything you do” (11:2). “Do not repeat the thought and lay it down” (11:3). Sounds familiar to me! If nothing else, this review superbly exposes all the little tricks our minds have been using to avoid the benefits of the lessons! Don’t let that discourage you. Just becoming aware of the devious ploys of the ego’s resistance is a major advance in the curriculum. But don’t stop there, either; now that you are aware of the ego’s tricks, you can turn the situation around and begin to let the ideas of the lessons “serve you in all ways, all times and places, and whenever you need help of any kind” (11:5). And just in case we missed the point, look how the review introduction closes. I’ve added a little emphasis here to make the point even plainer: Forget them not….

(12:2)

Do not forget how little you have learned. Do not forget how much you can learn now. Do not forget your Father’s need of you, as you review these thoughts He gave to you. (13:1–3)

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REVIEW III PRACTICE INSTRUCTIONS Purpose: A second chance at the last twenty lessons, in which you can practice them more diligently, and which can carry you so far ahead that you will continue your journey “on more solid ground, with firmer footsteps and with stronger faith” (12:3). Remarks: Please follow the format below as closely as you can. If you miss a practice period (either the longer ones or the every-halfhour ones) because you simply couldn’t do it at the appointed time, your progress is not hindered. Don’t worry about making those ones up. If, however, you missed because you just didn’t want to give the time, your progress is hindered. Those ones should be made up. You missed because you thought some other activity would deliver more. As soon as you remember that “your practicing can offer everything to you” (4:5), do your make-up practice periods as a statement that your real goal is salvation. In deciding if you should make up a practice period, be very honest with yourself. Do not try to pass off “I didn’t want to practice” as “I couldn’t practice.” Learn to discern between situations truly unsuited to practicing and those in which you could practice if you wanted. Longer: Two—one in the morning, one in the hour before sleep (ideally the first and last five minutes of your day), for five minutes (longer if you prefer). • Read over the two ideas and the comments about them, so that the ideas are firmly placed in your mind. • Then close your eyes and begin to think about the ideas and also to let related thoughts come (you should remember both of these practices from earlier lessons). This time, however, there is an important twist. Let your mind search out various needs, problems, and concerns in your life. As each one arises, let your mind come up with thoughts related to the ideas, thoughts which apply the essence of those ideas to the need, problem, or concern. In other words, let your mind creatively apply the ideas so as to dispel your sense of need, problem, or concern. This is a more developed version of letting related thoughts come, in which this technique combines with response to temptation (there were hints of this in Review II—see my comments on response to temptation in my Review II practice instructions). • Remember your training in letting related thoughts come: place the ideas in your mind. Trust your mind’s inherent wisdom to

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generate related thoughts (this trust is a big theme in this review). Don’t strain—let your mind come up with thoughts. The thoughts need only be indirectly related to the ideas, though they should not be in conflict. If your mind wanders, or you draw a blank, repeat the ideas and try again. • If you try this and it is just too unstructured for you, I have found the following more structured version to be useful: 1. Let a need, problem, or concern come to mind, and name it to yourself (for example, “I see this conflict with so-and-so as a problem”). 2. Repeat one or both of the ideas for the day (for instance, “I am spirit”). 3. While repeating the idea, watch your mind for any sparks of insight that arise which apply the idea to your need, problem, or concern, and verbalize this insight to yourself (for example, “As spirit, I cannot be hurt. I am totally invulnerable”). 4. Either continue with more such related thoughts, or go on to the next need, problem, or concern. Frequent reminders: On the hour and on the half hour, for a moment. • Repeat the applicable idea (on the hour, the first idea; on the half hour, the second idea). • Allow your mind to rest in silence and peace for a moment. • Afterwards, try to carry the idea with you, keeping it ready for response to temptation. Response to temptation: Whenever your peace is shaken. Repeat the idea (the one you are carrying with you from your last practice period). By applying the idea to the business of the day, you will make that business holy. Remarks: These shorter practice periods (frequent reminders and response to temptation) are at least as important as the longer. By skipping these, which you have tended to do, you have not allowed what you gained in the longer periods to be applied to the rest of your life, where it could show just how great its gifts are. After your longer practice periods, don’t let your learning “lie idly by” (10:1). Reinforce it with the frequent reminders every half hour. And after those, do not lay the idea down (11:3). Have it poised and ready to use in response to all your little upsets. In this way, you forge a continuous chain that reaches from your longer practice periods all the way into the hustle and bustle of your day.

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LESSON 111 • APRIL 21 (91) “Miracles are seen in light.” (92) “Miracles are seen in light, and light and strength are one.”

Practice instructions For practice instructions, see page XXX.

Commentary I am willing today to open my mind to the light. I am eager to emerge from my darkness, and I will not fear what the light will expose. Nothing I have been hiding can hurt me. I am hungry for the truth. Within me is only innocence, and not what I have feared was there. Within me, in the light, is what I have been longing all my life to find. I am a miracle. The light of God is my strength. I feel unable to rise up to this high calling, but my weakness is the darkness His light dispels. I do not need to be strong to come to the light; the light gives me strength as I approach it. I feel I lack the strength to see with the purity of vision called for by the Course, but God gives me the strength I need, and in His light, I see. Thank You, Father, for the light You shine into my mind today. Thank You for the light right now, in this moment.

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LESSON 112 • APRIL 22 (93) “Light and joy and peace abide in me.” (94) “I am as God created me.”

Practice instructions For practice instructions, see page XXX.

Commentary I am the home of light. My native being is inherently compatible with light. Light belongs with me and in me. I am not the home of darkness. By nature, when unhindered by illusion, I radiate light to everything around me. I am the home of joy. Sorrow and sadness are unnatural to me. When joy enters my mind it feels as if it belongs there. There is nothing in me that is inconsistent with pure joy. There is nothing in me that inhibits an atmosphere of constant joy. By nature, joy emanates from my being and stays with me. I am comfortable with joy, and joy is comfortable with me. I am the home of peace. I am where peace belongs. Peace is native to my mind. Peace is my natural state of mind, when it is set upon the truth. Nothing in me is discordant with a steady state of peace. Peace harmonizes with my being. My natural radiance spreads peace to every mind around me. This is how God created me. This is how I am, and will be forever. I am as changeless as God Himself, one with Him, and He with me. Nothing I have ever done or said or thought has changed this truth about me. What I am cannot change; what I am is eternal and consistent in its being. Today, recognizing the truth about myself, I welcome the light. I welcome pure joy. I welcome God’s peace. And I share them with the world.

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LESSON 113 • APRIL 23 (95) “I am one Self, united with my Creator.” (96) “Salvation comes from my one Self.”

Practice instructions For practice instructions, see page XXX.

Commentary There is something inexpressibly appealing about the idea of being “one Self.” Much of modern psychology talks about “integration” of the disparate aspects of our being. So much of the time we feel as if we are made up of varying segments, sometimes cooperating but more often than not conflicting with one another. There is what the Jungian analysts refer to as our “shadow” self, all the dark, repressed tendencies that follow us around as dark figures in our dreams. The Course holds out the vision of a unified Self. It speaks of “a mind at peace within itself” (W-pII.8.3:4). It tells us that because we must be only one Self, we cannot be in conflict. The Text talks about our war against ourselves (Chapter 23), and says that the apparent conflict we see in the world around us is nothing but a reflection of the illusion of conflict we all carry within our own minds. It says, “Peace begins within the world perceived as different, and leading from this fresh perception to the gate of Heaven and the way beyond” (W-pI.200.8:2). The peace must begin within us, in the serenity and calm of an integrated self, in a mind free of conflict and attack. The Self we are speaking of is more than just a whole individual, however. It is one Self shared by all, “at one with all creation and with God” (1:2). The two are really different aspects of the same thing, for as we free ourselves of conflict within ourselves, our conflict with the world will miraculously disappear. This is why salvation comes from this one Self. When we have consolidated ourselves, recognized the truth of our unified being, this condition of wholeness naturally extends to others. From within the circle of Atonement (T-14.V), we draw others to their own wholeness, shared with us. Today I still my mind from all its conflicts. I dissociate myself from the dissociation, I separate myself from the separation. I take time in quiet to break my sense of identification with this image of a shattered self, and I let myself sink down into the awareness of “one

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Self” within me, Who I really am. Conflicting images of myself come and go with startling frequency; they cannot be my reality. Something persists beneath it all, the “hum” of being in which all the flash and drama seems to occur. It is this steadiness that I am, not the ephemeral shooting stars of thought that seem to demand my attention. I embrace this one Self, avidly, saying, “Salvation comes from my one Self. This oneness is my salvation. This oneness is my reality.”

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LESSON 114 • APRIL 24 (97) “I am spirit.” (98) “I will accept my part in God’s plan for salvation.”

Practice instructions For practice instructions, see page XXX.

Commentary “No body can contain my spirit” (1:3) or limit it. So often, even when we connect with spiritual reality in some way, we think of ourselves (as someone has said) as human beings having a spiritual experience; it would be more accurate to conceive of ourselves as spiritual beings having a human experience. The first way of looking at it makes our humanness the basic reality, with the spiritual something that comes and goes within that reality. The second way of looking at it realizes that the spiritual is our basic reality, and the “human” experience is something that comes and goes within that reality. “I am spirit” (1:1). That is what I am. The experience of being a human being in a body is a temporary, passing thing. It does not alter what I am, and it cannot limit what I truly am, although it seems to do so because I believe in limitation. The value of such things as psychic or paranormal experiences lies in the degree to which they help us realize that the limits under which we habitually operate are not firm and fixed. Minds really are joined, space and time are not absolute limits, and so on. We all have many abilities of which we are not aware (see M-25.1:3), because we are not bodies but spirit. The transcendence of these limits, while appearing “supernatural” from the bodily perspective, is really completely natural; it is the limits that are unnatural (see M-25.2:7– 8). Anything that breaks our illusion of being limited to the body and makes that illusion less solid in our perception is useful, to the degree that we use these experiences or powers under the direction of the Holy Spirit. The experiences and powers are not ends in themselves. Our primary purpose is not to develop paranormal abilities, but to fulfill our part in God’s plan for salvation, which is simply to accept His Word about “what I am and will forever be” (2:2). In other words, spirit, complete and holy and everlasting. Notice that: my function, my part in the plan, is to accept the truth about what I am. It may seem as though that has nothing to do with anyone else, but it has

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everything to do with everyone else, because what I am is a part of everyone and everyone is a part of me. My illusion is that I am separate; the truth is that we all are one. To accept the truth about myself is to accept you as part of me, and us together as part of God. That involves forgiving you, forgiving the world, and forgiving God. To accept the Atonement for myself means to extend the Atonement to everyone around me; I cannot find my Self if I exclude you. To accept the fullness of my Self and my own creative power, I must cease to see myself as the victim of anyone or anything—because that is not the truth about what I am. To accept my unsullied integrity of being, I must cease to blame you for anything and realize that I am affected only by my own thoughts. Today, I will relax and let go of bodily limits. I will look at the limits I believe in and remind myself they are unreal. I will cease to “value what is valueless” (W-pI.133.Heading) and let go of my investment in my body. I will care for it as I would any useful possession, but I will try to undo, at least a little, my attachment to it and my feeling of identity with it. It will die. It will cease to be, but I will not, for I am spirit. I will accept this reality about myself because this is my part in God’s plan for salvation.

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LESSON 115 • APRIL 25 (99) “Salvation is my only function here.” (100) “My part is essential to God’s plan for salvation.”

Practice instructions For practice instructions, see page XXX.

Commentary My job is to forgive the world for all of my mistakes (1:2). Unless I have some idea of the Text’s teaching about projection I won’t have a clue as to what this means. Every “sin” I see out there in the world (even things like terrorist bombings) is, in some way, a projection of a judgment I have made on myself. My reluctance to forgive anything, or to see it as a call for love which merits a response of healing love, is a reflection of the degree to which I haven’t forgiven myself. The form I perceive “out there” may be shifted, altered, and transmogrified from my own form of “sin” so that I don’t recognize it. In fact, so far as the ego is concerned, the more unrecognizable the better. But the content is always the same. I may not blow up children, but if I judge those who do as unforgivable I am harboring a belief in vengeance that I haven’t forgiven in myself, and my judgment of the bombers is my judgment of myself. Therefore, when I release the world from guilt I have released myself. My only function is to forgive. Not to be a success in the world, not to change anything, just to forgive. It’s only when I accept this that I come to real inner peace. My doing this—my part in forgiveness—is essential to the whole process. For the world to find its complete guiltlessness I must stop laying guilt on it. There are people around me today who need guilt lifted from their shoulders, and doing that is why I meet them. It may look like I’m doing business, buying and selling, teaching, mending broken bones, or programming computers, but the real reason I am here is to save the world, to forgive, and to release from guilt.

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LESSON 116 • APRIL 26 (101) “God’s Will for me is perfect happiness.” (102) “I share God’s Will for happiness for me.”

Practice instructions For practice instructions, see page XXX.

Commentary Somewhere in our collective psyche there is a dark and terrible myth. The myth is that God’s Will means suffering and sacrifice, the loss of all that we love, giving up everything that is dear to us for the sake of His Kingdom. Doing God’s Will in this myth is a dark and cheerless thing. In one of her lectures, Marianne Williamson characterized it as: “I thought I would have to wear gray for the rest of my life.” God’s Will is happiness. How could Love want anything else for us? Every human being, even the lowest, wants those they love to be happy. How could we have ever imagined that God, the perfect Lover, wanted anything other than perfect happiness for us? All our suffering, then, must come from a belief that there is some “other” will opposing God’s that wants to ruin our happiness. We secretly suspect, perhaps, that that will is our own. If not, we know “they” are out there someplace, and they have it in for us. Yet there is no “other” will. There is no malevolent power stalking the universe and targeting us for destruction. There is only God. I share God’s Will for happiness for me. I am not incurably selfdestructive, with some dark and unfathomable vein of antipathy towards God, the universe, and myself inescapably driving me to death. My real will is one with God’s, and I will happiness. “I will there be light,” as Lesson 73 said. His Will is really all I want. The Course talks a great deal about the dark foundations of the ego that drive toward death. Those Stygian currents do flow within our minds, and they do warp and befoul our experience in this world. But the Course does not leave us there, without hope. It bears the message that although the ego seems very real, it is not us. It has no power over us; it is a mistaken fabrication our minds have made. And because we made it, we can unmake it. Because we chose it, we can choose again. If we stop being afraid of those murky corners of our minds and look at them, we will recognize they have no substance. We

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will see through them to our true Self. We will see what those dark foundations have been hiding all this time: our own intense and burning love for God, and His for us (see T-13.III.2:8). Here, in the real foundation of our being, we want what God wants, we love what God loves, and we will what God wills. Today, then, I let myself rest in the happy thought that at the root of my being is an irresistible drive towards truth. Perhaps I do not yet experience “perfect happiness,” but I will. I must. Because the heart of my heart wills it, and joins with God in willing it, and there is nothing that stands in the way that has any reality or power to resist. Nothing can prevent what God would have accomplished from accomplishment. Whatever your reactions to the Holy Spirit’s Voice may be, whatever voice you choose to listen to, whatever strange thoughts may occur to you, God’s Will is done. (T-13.XI.5:3–4) There is no chance that Heaven will not be yours, for God is sure, and what He wills is as sure as He is. (T-13.XI.8:9)

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LESSON 117 • APRIL 27 (103) “God, being Love, is also happiness.” (104) “I seek but what belongs to me in truth.”

Practice instructions For practice instructions, see page XXX.

Commentary “Let me remember love is happiness, and nothing else brings joy” (1:2). One of the things that over time has convinced me of the truth of the Course is this very experience: I am happiest when I am loving. I don’t just mean “I’m happy when I’m in love,” in the romantic sense of the word, although that certainly isn’t excluded. When love flows through me, whether it is in a closely intimate relationship or in something more “distant” (sitting here writing these notes and thinking of all of you, for instance), I am happy. Loving makes me happy. No, more than that: “Love is happiness” (1:2). (Barry Kaufman wrote a wonderful book called To Love Is to Be Happy With.1 I always thought that was a profound title.) On the other hand, anger is misery. If I think about how I feel when I am angry, I will notice that I don’t like the way I feel. As much as the Course is about concepts and about changing our mind, often the change of mind is a decision about feelings: “You can begin to change your mind with this: At least I can decide I do not like what I feel now” (T-30.I.8:1–2). Feelings can be very useful when we think about them, and use them as motivators for changing our mind. Anger makes me miserable; loving makes me happy. Therefore, I will choose love. Is that paying attention to feelings, or is it logic? Or both? Whatever it is, it works. I said that noticing that loving and happiness go together has helped convince me that the Course is true. Here’s why. The Course says we are wholly loving and wholly loveable. It says, “Teach only love, for that is what you are” (T-6.I.13:2). Sometimes I don’t feel as if I am love. Yet if when I love I am happy, love must be my will; it must be my nature. What is happiness, except the freedom to be myself and to fulfill my nature? If I am happy when I love, then I must be love. . Barry Neil Kaufman, To Love Is to Be Happy With (New York: Fawcett Crest Books, 1977). 1

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That is what this line means: “Love is my heritage, and with it joy” (2:2). My heritage. My nature. What I am. Love belongs to me in truth, and with it happiness, since they are the same thing. Today, as often as I can, I intend to remind myself: “Love is happiness.” And then, in that moment, to just be the love that I am. If I want to be always happy, let me always be loving. And joyous! Oh, the happiness and joy when the heart opens and lets out the love! May I not cause myself pain today by holding it back. God bless you all!

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LESSON 118 • APRIL 28 (105) “God’s peace and joy are mine.” (106) “Let me be still and listen to the truth.”

Practice instructions For practice instructions, see page XXX.

Commentary The substitutes that I have made are what stand in the way of my accepting God’s peace and joy. I already have God’s peace and joy, but my ego has decided they are not enough. As the Course says, I want “more than everything” (T-29.VII.2:3); my own wholeness is not enough. That section of the Text actually says that my seeking for “more than everything” is shown by the very fact that I am in this world. “No one who comes here but must still have hope, some lingering illusion, or some dream that there is something outside of himself that will bring happiness and peace to him” (T-29.VII.2:1). “Happiness and peace” is what I am looking for, but outside of myself. I have denied that they are within me, where God placed them. In order to find the peace and joy that are inherently mine, I have to “exchange” all the substitutes I have made. I have to let go of looking for happiness anywhere outside of myself. That isn’t easy, in my experience. It seems to happen gradually, over time. Little by little we learn that what we are looking for in the world simply isn’t there, not in any lasting way. Little by little, in parallel, we begin to take little tastes of our internal joy and peace. As we begin to weigh the two experiences it starts to become obvious that the peace and joy that come from within are much more reliable and satisfying than that which comes from without. We may try for a time to hold on to both, but it doesn’t work. Eventually we will let go, and fall back into the arms of God. Eventually we will simply accept God’s peace and joy. My voice keeps trying to declare how things should be. Essentially the Course is telling us to stop listening to our own advice: “Resign now as your own teacher” (T-12.V.8:3), it urges us. We have to stop thinking we are in control, that we know what to do and what is needed, and learn to listen. Like a drowning person, our own efforts to save ourselves are the biggest barrier to our Life Guard. We need to trust Him, to lie back and let go.

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The best way I know of to learn to do this is to practice doing it. To simply sit down for five, ten, fifteen minutes (whatever the lesson calls for, whatever seems right) and, after very briefly reviewing the idea of the day, just to be quiet. It seems hellaciously difficult, many days, to simply be quiet. The minute I try my mind starts reminding me of things: “Don’t forget to make that phone call. You need yogurt from the store. What are you going to do about your relationship with X? You haven’t done your laundry this week. You are overweight and you’re going to die.” I take a deep breath. Another. Another. I repeat the words for the day, “Let me be still and listen to the truth” (2:1). Or I say, “Help!” to the Holy Spirit. I let the thoughts come and go. I step back and watch them and try not to get drawn in. And I listen; maybe there is some word from my Teacher that will come. And sometimes, there is. Sometimes I just get very quiet, and the chatter of thoughts subsides, if not completely, to a dull, background murmur, like a crowd in a busy restaurant that I’m not really paying attention to. I practice getting quiet and listening. I don’t know about you, but I think it is a worthwhile exercise. Sometimes, it even carries over into my day, and I find myself listening to the Voice and not to myself as I move through it. And that’s what it’s all about.

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LESSON 119 • APRIL 29 (107) “Truth will correct all errors in my mind.” (108) “To give and to receive are one in truth.”

Practice instructions For practice instructions, see page XXX.

Commentary The first idea speaks of the correction of all error. The two explanatory sentences that follow speak on a very high level, defining “error” as any thought that we can be hurt. What I am is spirit. Spirit is eternal and unchanging, created by God like Himself. By the Course’s definition, what can be hurt or damaged is not real. That includes our bodies, our woundable psyches, everything we see in the physical universe; all of it has an end. “Nothing real can be threatened,” says the introduction to the Text (T-In.2:2). What I am learning is the invulnerability of my being, the eternal safety of my Self, at rest in the Mind of God. We are undergoing a very gradual and gentle weaning away from our identification with the ephemeral. What we are, in truth, does not die. We have dreamed a dream, and foolishly have come to believe the dream is us. We are not the dream; we are the dreamer. (The Text speaks at length of this in Chapter 27, sections VII and VIII.) The Holy Spirit eases us through a transitional phase, changing our terrifying dream into a happy one, so that we will waken softly and joyfully, no longer gripped by terrors of the night. How are we to shift our dream? It is too great a leap to go from a state where pain and hurt and death are bitter realities to us, into an awareness of our eternal nature. So the second idea for today speaks of the means by which we can begin, gently, to shift into the happy dream: forgiveness. We come to recognize our sinlessness, and thus our Self, by forgiving all things around us. We have to learn to accept the truth in ourselves, and we do so by learning to see past the error in others, until with a start of recognition, we realize that what is beneath the errors of others is Something we share with them. We find ourselves in our brothers and sisters, through forgiveness. What we have learned to give to others has, all the time, been given to ourselves. We awaken by awaking others. We teach peace to learn it.

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In kindness and mercy towards others, we ourselves fall into the kind and merciful heart of God.

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LESSON 120 • APRIL 30 (109) “I rest in God.” (110) “I am as God created me.”

Practice instructions For practice instructions, see page XXX.

Commentary Every now and then I’m glad my old high school English teacher taught me to diagram sentences. I find myself doing things like noticing the main phrases in a sentence like this: “I rest in God and let Him work…while I rest…” (1:2). For me, today, what this says is just to relax and trust the process. Just to “let go and let God,” as the saying goes. Sunday is traditionally a “day of rest” in the Christian tradition, and for most of us, a day in which it is convenient (more than other days) to practice resting. Periodically it is beneficial to take one day, and consciously make it a day of rest for yourself. That doesn’t mean you might not do something productive, but if you do, it will be because it is something you enjoy doing, something you want to do. Today I want to remember peace. Sometimes I get so worried I won’t make it. I pick at the scabs of my healing mind, wondering when they will heal completely. I fuss and wonder what else I can be doing to make the healing happen faster. Fussing just makes it worse. Fussing is what I am being healed from. So let me rest today. Ahhh! As I rest, my Father tells me Who I really am. “The memory of God comes to the quiet mind” (T-23.I.1:1). When I allow myself to settle back in spirit, I find a firm foundation, the bedrock of my Self, as God created me. I’m okay. The turmoil I am so concerned about is nothing but “sick illusions of myself” (2:3). What I am is just fine, and I don’t have to protect It. I am home.

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